The American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC has functioned as a 'bill mill' and is responsible for crafting the templates used by GOP politicians nationwide. ALEC Claims Credit for Voter Suppression and Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws at Secret Meeting - EXPOSEDbyCMD
One model bill template focuses on the rash of anti-CRT (Critical Race Theory) bills receiving major media coverage. Realistically, these bills more closely align along the intellectual pablum lines of the 'false equivalence' argument. In fact, these anti-CRT bills are solely predicated on that same false equivalence assertion. And think about it, that's all this crowd has to offer.
False equivalence arguments, wholesale academic censorship....and ALEC....
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) published an investigative report on ALEC's role in the anti-CRT movement. The headline reads: ALEC Claims Credit for Voter Suppression and Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws at Secret Meeting. It was written by David Armiak, who is research director with the Center for Media and Democracy. ALEC Claims Credit for Voter Suppression and Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws at Secret Meeting - EXPOSEDbyCMD
Now, ALEC has been in the news recently for another reason: they suffered a mass exodus of corporate funder members after news broke that the group was the impetus behind multiple racist voter ID laws. ALEC responded to this income stream loss by allegedly dropping all 'model' policy goals related to election procedures or any social issues. American Legislative Exchange Council Transparency and Public Engagement - American Legislative Exchange Council (alec.org) Unsurprisingly, ALEC didn't keep its word, and was back in the 'social' issues business just in time for Trump's rant against the 1619 Project. From Trump's instigation came the anti-CRT brigades, demanding that Critical Race Theory be banned from public schools K-12 curriculum.
ALEC and the Council for National PolicyTies to hate groups....
Just this past May, ALEC representatives were panel speakers at the Council for National Policy meeting aka CNP. Many 'Council' members hold extremist political positions, openly embracing white supremacist, anti-gay, anti-Muslim goals, as documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Many current and former CNP members have documented ties to known hate groups. Council for National Policy - SourceWatch
The panel discussions revolved around state legislation on voting rights restrictionsand predictablyforbidding any mention of Critical Race Theory in our public schools. This became the entryway for neo-Nazis likeDave Reilly. The presenters from ALEC included three of their own board members, Utah State Senate President J. Stuart Adams, Mississippi Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn, future Florida Speaker of the House Rep. Danny Perez, and lastbut certainly not leastALEC CEO Lisa Nelson. CMD obtained videos which documented their participation.
ALEC has claimed credit for the onslaught of anti-CRT legislation, hosting a virtual workshop on December 3, 2020, titled "Against Critical Theory's Onslaught." The workshop was part of their annual States and Nation Policy Summit. It counted corporate lobbyists, state legislators, and staff from right-wing policy groups as documented by an attendance list published by the Center for Media and Democracy. ALEC 2020 States and Nation Policy Summit Attendees - SourceWatch The workshop description stated that, "The 1619 curriculum is infecting our schools. Diversity training is taking over our workplaces. How do patriotic Americans respond?" 2020 ALEC Virtual States & Nation Policy Summit (pathable.com) ALEC is essentially inciting the political lynch mob to ban the teaching of our full history, by banning any mention of systemic racism, misogyny, or religious bigotry, and the pedagogical boogie manis Critical Race Theory. CRT is the excuse used by radical white supremacists to justify censoring academic freedom in our public schools. The fact that CRT is only taught in law school and has never been included in any K-12 curriculum remains as irrelevant to these rabid bigots as sanity doesto The Donald. CRT becomes the gateway issue needed to reduce history and civics curriculums to White Supremacist propaganda. CRT isthe new--'forced busing.'
CRT definitionand why the GOP uses it to mobilize the mob....
Authors Don Wiener and Alex Kotch explain Critical Race Theory as the following:
""Critical race theory posits that racism is not just the result of individual bias but is the result of institutionalized laws and practices that create or reinforce discrimination. But right-wing politicians have misconstrued the term's meaning and convinced many of their constituents that teaching an honest history of racism in America is akin to telling white students to hate themselves and their country." ALEC Inspires Lawmakers to File Anti-Critical Race Theory Bills - EXPOSEDbyCMD
Wiener and Kotch also quoted Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi, who is the director of the Center for Antiracist Research, regarding this very subject. Professor Kendi explained.
"The Republican operatives, who dismiss the expositions of critical race theorists and anti-racists in order to define critical race theory and anti-racism, and then attack those definitions, are effectively debating themselves. They have conjured an imagined monster to scare the American people and project themselves as the nation's defenders from that fictional monster." ALEC Inspires Lawmakers to File Anti-Critical Race Theory Bills - EXPOSEDbyCMD
Wiener and Kotch from CMD explain that the GOP must use the fear of this fictional monster as a political wedge issue in order to recapture the House in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. Buzzfeed News explained. "The strategy is rooted in what Republican officials believe worked for them in 2020: tying Democrats in swing districts to a hyperemotional and tense local issue, even if it's not something that Congress has much of a role in. In the last election, it was police funding and Black Lives Matter protests." Critical Race Theory Is Now A Republican Campaign Issue (buzzfeednews.com)
ALEC's anti-CRT lobbying results in legislation....the Texas law... HR 3979 AKA SB3
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