That's right, as of just a few weeks ago, Democrats in Pennsylvania and all over the nation have one more reason to be proud of what their party stands for. Every single member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly affiliated with ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council that concocts radical right-wing legislation for state legislators to get passed in their home states, is now a Republican.
Much praise is due to the herculean efforts of Keystone Progress, which describes itself as "a multi-issue progressive advocacy organization that combines cutting edge online organizing and communications with rapid and hard-hitting earned media strategies." Keystone Progress also runs the Just Say No To ALEC web site and has done important work showing ALEC's infiltration of the PA General Assembly so far. After an earlier report by them stated that there was only one remaining Democratic PA legislator connected to ALEC, Keystone Progress filed a Right to Know Law request that eventually revealed more Democratic PA legislators with ties to the right-wing corporate group (in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by PA taxpayers being spent on ALEC and ALEC events).
Then began what KP described as an "exodus" of members of the PA General Assembly leaving ALEC behind, the largest such exodus in the nation. 14, 15, 16, 17; Democrats, Republicans; legislators were jumping the ALEC ship at a record pace. By time the 18th PA legislator had left ALEC, KP was able to run the headline: "All PA Dems have now disaffiliated from ALEC."
As a progressive Democrat, I believe strongly that our society is to be judged on how we treat the most needy among us. I think that this belief is one of the most important things that separates us from conservative Republicans regarding our vision of government. ALEC is a force for reducing opportunities for Americans of low socioeconomic status and ensuring lasting, unchallenged power for private interests of the highest socioeconomic status.
I'd prefer for no state legislators to be connected to ALEC, but I see it as a powerful statement of our values as a party that now, at least in Pennsylvania, all of ALEC's mouthpieces are Republicans, and not one of them is a Democrat.
Let Republicans be the party of polluting the environment of Pennsylvania, cutting back on investing in our children's education, voter disenfranchisement, weakening civil justice rights, and maximally milking the working poor to further enrich our wealthiest citizens if they want to be, and we Democrats will be the ones fighting back.
One of my heroes, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, spoke about the importance of strong governing institutions that are powerful enough to resist the influence of wealthy private interests in 1938:
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That in it's essence, is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power."
Let Republicans fight for a government so weak that it can be pushed around in any direction by anyone with a thick enough wallet, and we Democrats will fight for a government that is strong enough to do for the least among us what they cannot do for themselves, even in the face of powerful opposition. We will be the party of FDR.
For more on ALEC and their presence in Pennsylvania, you can watch this great interview PCN (basically PA's C-SPAN) conducted with Michael Morrill, the executive director of Keystone Progress, who is still hard at work pushing even the PA Democrats with no ties to ALEC to go on record opposing the group.