ALEC’s Recipe for Change

Here’s a well-worn recipe from the ALEC-controlled Ohio Republican Party:

Ingredients: model legislation created by special interest groups, ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), GOP-controlled Ohio Senate, GOP-controlled Ohio House, ALEC alumnus Governor John Kasich

Directions: Drastically gerrymander Congressional districts for majority legislative control by GOP and ALEC.  Use severe budget cuts and intense media coverage to stir discontent and seduce constituents. Take extreme model legislation created and provided by corporations in ALEC’s various task forces.  Copy and paste into bills sponsored by ALEC legislators, and promote the statutes as credible ways to ease everyone’s discomfort.

Lobby fellow Republican legislators from safe districts who think they are no longer accountable to the people.  Ignore the large number of written and verbal protests from civilian activists. Pass the laws along party lines and publish a picture of the governor signing legislation surrounded by a kindred group of arrogant Republicans.

This is how to cook your own goose. 

Remember in November.

#VoteBlue2014

#WinOH2014

Think.

 

One of ALEC’s Great Pretenders

Oh-oh, yes I’m the great pretender, pretending that I’m doing well, 

My need is such I pretend too much, I’m lonely but no one can tell.

Too real is this feeling of make-believe,

Too real when you see what my acts can’t conceal,

Oh-oh, yes I’m the great pretender, pretending that I’m doing well,

My need is such I pretend too much, I’m lonely but no one can tell.

~Recorded by the Platters in 1955

The Great Pretender was the first ever Doo Wop song to reach #1 in America, and The Platters were the first R&B group to have a #1 hit on the pop charts.  Since Doo Wop groups often practiced in washrooms because of great acoustics, the Platters, along with their manager Buck Ram, wrote the lyrics in the washroom of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in the mid-50’s.

Ohio’s own Great Pretender is Governor John Kasich, who pretends to be many things that he’s not. He pretends that he’s a compassionate governor who wants to help working-class Ohioans, yet he championed the anti-worker Senate Bill 5 in 2011. He pretends that he’s a job creator, though Ohio’s unemployment rate is above the national average. He pretends that he’s cut taxes, but he’s merely shifted the burden from income taxes to increase property and sales taxes. John Kasich pretends that he’s a moderate Republican; however, his entire agenda is heavily based on ideals from the radically conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC.

He’s currently trying to convince voters that he’s “just another kid from an ethnic blue-collar background” who supports helping those less fortunate through government social programs.  Athens County Job & Family Services Director Jack Frech, whose agency serves one of Ohio’s poorest counties, said Kasich has done more damage than good for the poor.

“The truth is we’ve thrown 100,000 people, including 60,000 children, off cash assistance, and those people have nothing and they are hungry and many of them are homeless,” Frech said. “That’s the reality of his policies. I think it’s great that the governor’s talking about poor people, but his compassion that he expresses does not reflect the reality of his policies.”

Oh-oh, yes, John Kasich is the Great Pretender, but Ohio voters can see what his acts can’t conceal. .. and that’s not make-believe.

Think.

Stand Up to ALEC with the Ohio Voter Bill of Rights

Behold the politician.

Self-preservation is his ambition

He thrives in the D. of C.

Where he was sent by you and me.

~Ogden Nash, 1935

Even though self-preservation is the first law of nature, arrogant Republicans have boldly taken it to new extremes with their quest for voter suppression throughout the country.  In Ohio, the GOP aims to win the 2014 election at any cost by limiting the votes of as many Democrats as possible.  Stricter voting laws have been passed, early voting times were shortened, and congressional districts have been severely gerrymandered.  In spite of these new rules, the Republican Secretary of State, Jon Husted, still claims, “It is easy to vote in Ohio.”  Yeah… if you repeat that line to enough reporters, Jon, maybe someone will fall for it.

Eliminating “Golden Week” and shortening the early voting period will needlessly complicate the voting process and place additional burdens on voters. Voters with disabilities, seniors, the homeless, new Ohio residents, people with a lack of transportation, and others such as parents and/or the working poor, among many others, have utilized Golden Week as a flexible way to register and vote simultaneously.  http://www.acluohio.org/legislation/2013-2014-sb-238

ALEC pushes voter-suppression laws because its members fear what a Democratic election would produce if everyone who wanted to vote was able to do so.  Ohioans recognize these attempts to block their votes for what they really are: desperate efforts by frightened politicians whose main goal is to preserve the interests of themselves, corporations, and the ALEC-controlled Republican Party.

Stand up to ALEC by joining the movement to place the Ohio Voter Bill of Rights in the Ohio Constitution through a ballot referendum.

The Bill of Rights:

• Makes voting a fundamental right in the Ohio Constitution.
• Makes voter registration for all eligible citizens easy and accessible, including online.
• Maintains current options for voters to identify themselves and expands ID options (Includes Student ID)
• Maintains the 35 day early voting period.  This timeframe cannot be reduced.
• Helps working families & faith based community.
• Requires that early voting stations be open the weekend before the election-including Sunday voting.
• Addresses the “Right church, wrong pew” voting problem.  Currently, if the voter is directed to vote in the wrong precinct at his or her polling place, the vote is not counted.
• A ballot cannot be rejected due to a poll worker’s error.
• Stops legalized voter disenfranchisement.

Petitions are now available for circulation and signatures.  Help gather the more than 384,000 signatures needed to put this initiative on the ballot in November 2014.  Stand up to ALEC by signing and/or circulating a petition.  http://ohiovrc.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_20.html

Think.

ALEC is the Root of All Evil

Money is the root of all evil.

Love of money is the root of all evil.

Corporate love of money is the root of all evil.

Any ALEC “model” bill that benefits the corporate love of money is the root of all evil.

Extreme legislation that results from any ALEC “model” bill that benefits the corporate love of money is the root of all evil.

Any GOP lawmaker who advocates for extreme legislation that results from any ALEC “model” bill that benefits the corporate love of money is the root of all evil.

An association with GOP lawmakers who advocate for extreme legislation that results from any ALEC “model” bill that benefits the corporate love of money is the root of all evil.

Since the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an association with GOP lawmakers who advocate for extreme legislation that results from any ALEC “model” bill that benefits the corporate love of money, ALEC is the root of all evil.

ALEC “model” legislation promotes the agenda of “polluters, privatizers, and profiteers” in statehouses across the country, including Ohio.  ALEC, the extremist group that is funded by major corporations to protect corporate interests, has a large number of members in the Ohio legislature.  Governor John Kasich and the Republican-controlled Ohio House and Senate are deeply rooted in ALEC.

What can ordinary citizens do about American Legislators Exhibiting Corruption (ALEC) in Ohio?  Find out who they are, and pressure them to sever all ties with ALEC.  If they continue to put corporate interests before the good of their constituents, work hard to expose them and run them out of office.

Only then will we go back to the norm of lawmakers who create laws in Ohio based on the needs of Ohioans, rather than elected officials who pass cookie-cutter bills from outsiders to protect the desires of business organizations.

Check here to see a list of Ohio legislators in ALEC: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ohio_ALEC_Politicians

Think.