I have to admit, I sometimes tire of the endless fodder produced by the likes of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers and their corporate influence and the actions of enforcers of our laws in what can only be described as an ongoing "Class warfare" here in our nation.
Today an article written by David Rosen appeared at AlterNet, titled: " Notorious Pro-Corporate Group ALEC's Hidden Role in Stoking Class War in Wisconsin and the Rest of America " that connects ALEC's role to the uproar across the Midwest involving right to work and collective bargaining laws the conservatives and corporate elite are trying to implement. It also defines the wage and union busting efforts by the conservatives as a "class war" being waged in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee.
It also informs that in Virginia, Montana, Ohio and Wisconsin, bills have been introduced to incorporate similar laws into the respective state constitutions. All of these conservative efforts are coordinated through ALEC and their 2400 state lawmakers who are "members" of this insidious cabal that sits at the core of the corporate elite's pursuit of lower wages and expanding the use of privatization nationwide. On ALEC's Private Enterprise Board sits Mike Morgan. Never heard that name before? You're not alone, many haven't so let's take a moment and understand just who this one name among the dozen or so who make up ALEC's Private Enterprise Board, really is.
Mike Morgan is director of public and government affairs for Koch Industries. In that capacity his duties are described as:
"Mike is the director of public and government affairs for Koch Industries. In that capacity, he directs Koch’s governmental activities at the federal and state levels as well as directing Koch’s media and community affairs/
philanthropic activities. Mike was a key driver in the partnership between WSU and Koch Industries during the development of the Charles Koch Arena project. Mike’s position with Koch requires significant travel, most often to Washington, DC."
In 2006 Morgan "left" Koch Industries to become a
consultant for Koch but is still referred to as their director of public and government affairs as their "consultant." This
page provides us with interesting "interlocks" involving Morgan and Koch.
Morgan has been a Private Enterprisee Board member since prior to 2003.
In 2010 one of the Koch family foundations, the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation funded $120,000.00 to ALEC . This is in addition to other membership and sponsorship funding provided by Koch to ALEC. In 2010 Koch and their employees contributed 2357 large ($200+) contributions to Koch's PAC.
If we go back a little further to 2003, Kansas and then Governor, Kathleen Sebilius we start to see interaction between Koch Industries and Mike Morgan in addressing the "wasteful spending" in that state. Morgan suggested Sebilius use a Koch Policy Analyst/Economist, Art Hall as her " unpaid executive director of the Budget Efficiency Savings Teams " to assist her in making spending cuts to the Kansas budget. Though Koch Industries supported Sebilius' opponent, Sebilius said:
"...she is not concerned that Koch has contributed heavily to Republican candidates, including her opponent in the governor's race last year.
"He is really my person in this administration, not directed by the leadership in Koch," she added.
Sebelius said Mike Morgan, Koch's government relations director whom she has known for years, suggested Hall when she was selecting team members.
Further down in the article Hall's previous experience was provided:
"Hall has been with Koch for six years, analyzing the effect of government policies in states and numerous countries on Koch's far-flung operations.
Before that, he spent five years with the Tax Foundation in Washington, a group that receives contributions from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.
He also spent 18 months with the General Accounting Office, the auditing and investigative arm of Congress.
Now, he splits his time between the state work and Koch, which is not known for loaning out executives on a long-term basis.
The company has taken on small roles in other areas of the country, working with state and local governments to "foster good economic thinking," said spokeswoman Mary Beth Jarvis.
Koch Industries has spent millions over the years advocating open markets, lower taxes, minimal government regulation and a high bar for private plaintiffs who sue corporations.
The company's two top executives, Charles and David Koch, helped found a number of anti-tax and anti-regulation groups, including the Tax Foundation, which analyzes the effects of tax policy, the corporate activist organization Citizens for a Sound Economy, and the free-market think tank, the Cato Institute.
Hall also ended up helping Sebelius despite the fact that Koch and its top executives, including chief executive Charles Koch, backed her opponent in the governor's race, Republican Tim Shallenburger.
In 2007 we find Governor Sebilius' name linked again to Koch and fellow ALEC member and funder, Wal-Mart, all involved in helping to bring soldiers home for the holidays through private donations. This information was provided by the PR people at Koch through a
press release.
As with most politics, there comes a point when quid pro quo becomes involved and this happened in August of last year, when our now serving Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebilius approved Koch Industry's application to receive a portion of the $5 billion Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (from the "Obamacare" initiative Koch fought so hard against).
Jump to the present and we now have ALEC and their members/supporters Koch Industries and others affiliated with both, firmly supporting Wisconsin's Governor Walker's initiatives to bust Unions in that state. Over the past couple of days it was discovered that Koch contributed $43,000 to Walker's campaign and again here comes the quid pro quo in the form of attacking fair wages and collective bargaining. As with the "help" provided to Sebilius in Kansas, there always comes a pay day or day of reckoning where such "help" requires a repayment. Over the past two weeks that payday for Koch brothers has arrived in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Montana and elsewhere. They have sown the seeds of corporatocracy wisely over the past decade or more and sat back calmly and watched those seeds grow into strong vibrant and insidious weeds, spreading out and choking the life out of workers jobs and livelihoods across the United States.
As the links herein and the words I've written show, the preliminary bouts in this class war have been ongoing over the past several years. While most of us with a liberal or progressive slant have been kept busy with other important issues during this period, the Koch/ALEC cabal have been busy behind the curtains hiding their activities preparing for the first major and possibly determinant battle in this fight. They now believe they have all of their ducks in a row lined up to win and thus have let loose their hounds in several states. This is being done all at once in an effort to overwhelm us with an intensity they believe the Dems will be unable to respond to, as they think we haven't seen this coming and are taken unawares. I think they have under planned their campaign and failed to take into consideration that it is now 99% of the American population aligned against them in clearly drawn lines. Once the battle flags have been unfurled, there is no more a tendency for the rest of us to be able to ignore the challenge and realize the outcome if we fail to respond quickly and emphatically. That is now starting to happen...
Today House Democrats in my home state of Indiana have followed in the footsteps of their brethren in Wisconsin and have disappeared from sight, leaving the House unable to convene and take up the right to work legislation proposed by Indiana Republicant Legislators representing ALEC (and thus the agenda of Koch Industries), Rep. David A. Wolkins and ALEC First VP, Rep. Dave Frizzell .
At some point the mainstream media need to get off their asses and cover this class warfare that has our country in a firm grip right now. That 99% of us I mentioned above have to be made aware of what the outcome of this war means to them and their children and children's children. Ignoring it, denying it exists and hoping it will all go away doesn't cut it any longer. Corporatocracy is a real concept in America now that is pitting those with the wealth against those without, in an effort of governmental take over and control by the corporate elite. No one can deny the existence, purpose behind the attacks against worker's rights or those funding and pushing this agenda. There is no longer any doubt this is led by Conservatives belonging to ALEC, the Reason Foundation, Heritage Foundation and similar groups funded in large part by Koch Industries, their foundations and family members. They can continue to tell us that it is for the good of the nation if they want to, but those of us out here trying to scrape enough money together to buy groceries to feed our families know different. This is an attack upon our ability to work for fair wages and live a prosperous and acceptable life.
This fight boils down to a single and important concept: it is a battle between employees and their employers over fair wages. One side has all the wealth, companies, lobbyists and many politicians on their team and the other has the workforce and a dwindling number of Democratic politicians on theirs. Our Democratic representatives have taken the unprecedented step of walking away from the discussions that have already been decided behind closed doors by Republican caucuses and only need the presence of those Democratic dissenters to move forward to implementation.
I say if CBS, NBC, ABC and other major media outlets continue to sit on the sidelines in this battle, their absence from the discussion serves only to enable the likes of Fox and CNN to serve as the only forum available to the millions of citizens affected by the current situation. Their refusal to report this fight as the opening skirmish of a full blown class war is just what Koch and ALEC are depending upon - keeping the true causes out of the public's view. Shame on them and their corporate owners who continue to sit idly by while the entire American way of life is being threatened from within.
Unions have now been forced to face the fact that they have been splintered by some Unions supporting prison privatization and state prison guards that directly conflict with other Unions representing the majority of American workers. They have been made to choose to honor their longstanding concept of support of all unions regardless of the argument or issue, or break that habit and represent the interests of their collective members. Corporations are now facing the same dilemma. Corporate media owners have to now choose to side with the likes of Koch Industries, AT&t and others or make the break and stand up against them. The choice is at hand, and for many of us it is an easy call, believing that these media owners must now choose to side with the people who are their consumers.