To: The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Greg Abbott
Drop Your Membership in ALEC
To be delivered to The Texas State House, The Texas State Senate, and Governor Rick Perry.
We the undersigned, citizens of the state of Texas, demand that you, our elected public servants, drop your memberships in the anti-democratic, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and pledge to never join or be affiliated with ALEC in the future.
We the undersigned, citizens of the state of Texas, demand that you, our elected public servants, drop your memberships in the anti-democratic, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and pledge to never join or be affiliated with ALEC in the future.
Why is this important?
The American Legislative Exchange Council is an organization consisting of global corporate interests and state legislators that collaborate secretly to draft thousands of model bills that are then introduced simultaneously in state capitols throughout the country.
Meeting in backrooms, being wined and dined by corporate lobbyists like the Koch Brothers, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Exxon Mobil, Hughes Oil, Geo and Corrections Corporation of America (the private prison industry), the NRA, and the lobby to privatize our once great public school system, is not democracy of, by, and for the people. When you have government by the private prison industry, the NRA, or by the Koch Brothers, you have a culture where prison is encouraged by the school-to-prison pipeline, young black men are shot down with impunity, and a world where environmental degradation and climate change are the price we all must pay for business as usual.
Some ALEC bills you may recognize: "Stand Your Ground Laws," promoted by the NRA; "Right to Work Legislation" supported by the Koch Brothers and other corporate interests, designed to kill living wages and public pensions; voter ID laws to kill democracy; bills to kill meaningful healthcare reform; the Parental Choice Scholarship Act that promotes vouchers and sends our tax dollars to for-profit schools and phony online degree programs.
According to Progress Texas, out of 181 state legislators, at least 35 have known ALEC ties. It’s well past time to stop the flow of dirty money into our state legislatures. We must demand our elected officials stop subverting democracy and drop their memberships in ALEC. Let’s have government of, by, and for the people once again.
Meeting in backrooms, being wined and dined by corporate lobbyists like the Koch Brothers, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Exxon Mobil, Hughes Oil, Geo and Corrections Corporation of America (the private prison industry), the NRA, and the lobby to privatize our once great public school system, is not democracy of, by, and for the people. When you have government by the private prison industry, the NRA, or by the Koch Brothers, you have a culture where prison is encouraged by the school-to-prison pipeline, young black men are shot down with impunity, and a world where environmental degradation and climate change are the price we all must pay for business as usual.
Some ALEC bills you may recognize: "Stand Your Ground Laws," promoted by the NRA; "Right to Work Legislation" supported by the Koch Brothers and other corporate interests, designed to kill living wages and public pensions; voter ID laws to kill democracy; bills to kill meaningful healthcare reform; the Parental Choice Scholarship Act that promotes vouchers and sends our tax dollars to for-profit schools and phony online degree programs.
According to Progress Texas, out of 181 state legislators, at least 35 have known ALEC ties. It’s well past time to stop the flow of dirty money into our state legislatures. We must demand our elected officials stop subverting democracy and drop their memberships in ALEC. Let’s have government of, by, and for the people once again.