David Koch, Fleeing The Press At The RNC, Tampa 2012
(Photo: Martha Jackovics)
If you've read the GOP's "autopsy" of their losses in the 2012 election (re-branded as the "Growth and Opportunity Project") but haven't come to the conclusion that it's mostly nonsense just yet, this could do it for you.
One of the things that stood out for me was a small section buried in the Campaign Finance, and State Campaign and Finance Laws and Regulations recommendations. It's just a couple of sentences, but it's in conflict with a majority of the other recommended policies in the report. Or rather, what they would have people believe they want to do to woo voters.
Here's the snippet, which is listed twice, word for word, on pages 69 and 97:
3. Model legislation should be developed by interested organizations and state legislative leaders to improve state campaign finance laws. Organizations such as the RNC, the RSLC, and ALEC may wish to take a leading role. To turn ideas to action nationwide, experts should develop model statutes that can be replicated across states.
The two paragraphs are identical, almost as if they were a cut and paste job from something like, oh, I don't know, an ALEC "model" maybe?
If you're not already familiar with ALEC, that's the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the corporate funded group who work with lobbyists and conservative politicians to write the "model legislation" that legislators then bring home to their states and pass into law. They get a large amount of their funding from the Koch brothers. (I've written more about them and their involvement in Florida here, here, here, here, here, and here, just to link a few of those posts.) ALEC has brought Florida laws like the Stand Your Ground gun law, election laws, and were behind many of the Amendments on the 2012 ballot. That's just a small sample.
ALEC largely operated in secret, and many elected officials passing off their cut and paste legislation did too. But when ALEC's behind the scenes operations were exposed to a little sunlight, corporations who had quietly worked with them began getting push back from activists, angry consumers and voters. Many of them quit working with ALEC because of it.
But there are plenty of those who still work with ALEC, lawmakers, and work "for" Koch, and not in the best interest of voters and consumers.
According to the GOP's new recommendations, they're practically saying they are fully prepared to hand over governing to ALEC, and the Koch's for a price. No more secret dealings. They're indicating right there in black and white for everyone to see that they're willing to sell out the country. "ALEC may wish to take a leading role?" There's no "may" about it. They want the whole ball game and the GOP knows that. They've already made a big investment as it is.
Shamelessly outsourcing "Democracy." Welcome to the GOP's real model for America.
It's not like many of us weren't already aware that it was really the Koch brothers and corporate America who were pulling our elected officials strings, but this is blatant. It's like the GOP is saying: "Yeah, you actually elected the Koch brothers, corporations and lobbyists, and guess what? From now on we're just going to cut to the chase and hand everything over to them for a price. We're going to let them write any old law they want. Hey, it's not like we work for a living anyway, and we certainly don't know what we're doing. Now excuse us while we jet off for another taxpayer funded vacation." Boom. No pretense about it anymore.
And of course, who is behind a lot of the laws and policies that earned the Republican Party losses in the last few elections? That's right, all of the above.
So while they claim they're going to change their ways and tinker with their policies and their messaging, the biggest "message" of all is really contained in that one little paragraph found on pages 69 and 97. Combined with even more leeway in campaign finance laws, that pretty much cancels out the rest of the report as merely window dressing.
Any questions?
