I'm shutting down Google+ for the night and quite possibly for the weekend. Why? This stupid #gifwars thing people are so proud of. This Adam Black guy said he doesn't like gifs and now everyone is mass trolling him. Having been mass trolled like this I can relate to him easily enough. Have an opinion and the collective might of Google+'s lower class denizens jump on a bandwagon. I just saw a post where someone wanted to jump on board and had to get clarification she was tagging the proper Adam Black. She wasn't even connected to him ! Nor was she a part of the original discussion. She just wanted to follow the herd. When I called her out of it she claimed, "one gif doesn't make a troll." Perhaps not, but she's contributing to a larger troll effort. One straw doesn't break the camel's back, but thousands will. So, tonight, Google+ disgusts me. It probably will tomorrow as well. And possibly Sunday. I gave up Google+ for two months this spring
Comments
Most critics of ALEC are either idiots who have no idea how modern governance works, or cynics who believe some people don't deserve a seat at the table.
ALEC's interests happen to be contrary to most Americans.
Now, if our legislators were out there creating legislation instead of schmoozing donors then maybe lobbyists and special interests wouldn't have such a hold on legislative bills.
Government officials aren't selected on the basis of knowledge, but of ability to speak, network, and demagogue. That's what they're good at. That's how they win elections and appointments. They usually don't have the expertise to write legislation on complex subjects.
You mention interest, and of course that's a big part of it. That's why lobbyists and advocates develop expertise: interest. Google, Apple, Microsoft, et. al., gain deep knowledge of the computing and technology sectors; Exxon, British Petroleum, Chevron, et. al., gain deep knowledge of the oil industry; etc., etc., because their business survival depends on such knowledge. Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, et. al., gain deep knowledge of environmental issues because that's what they care about and spend all their time on.
As for ALEC, there's no basis at all for declaring them "contrary to most Americans." On the national level, Americans are evenly divided politically, as shown in elections and surveys. And ALEC's goals are no different from those of the many conservatives and libertarians who are part of that divided electorate.
If ALEC actually did advocate ideas "contrary to most Americans," it'd have little influence among politicians who care first and foremost about getting re-elected.
So the issue here isn't that ALEC has somehow gained outsized influence, but that some alleged progressives are capitalizing on the Trayvon Martin tragedy to demonize people who disagree with them.
Does it happen? Of course it happens, but that's a problem of the system not something to be rewarded. If the people whose job it is to write the bills actually wrote those bills then there'd be a lot less idiotic legislation getting submitted.
And yes, legislators have aides and there is an office (I can't think of the name of it right off hand) that has lawyers who actually do nothing more than write legislation all day long for (drum roll, please) legislators. They're the ones who put all the legal mumbo-jumbo in there to make a 3 page bill into a 900 page monstrosity.
I've studied it too.
As for staffers writing some legislation (most is written by lobbyists): Many of them used to be lobbyists / advocates or are tight with people who are.
There's no getting around interest group influence on legislation; the only way to curtail it is reduce the scope of legislation in the first place, to reduce opportunity and motive for lobbying (official or clandestine).
I didn't go into that because it had nothing to do with my point, which is that ALEC's activities are nothing unusual or improper in the current paradigm. To seek ALEC's downfall in particular is thuggery in action, a mean-spirited attempt to deny political opponents a seat at the table.
One of the perils of living and working in DC is that these arguments are not abstract, involving distant bogeymen. They sometimes target people I know and like, such as current and former ALEC staffers.
I take personal offense when people in my network are maligned. They're not trying to deny anyone's vote or get people killed. They're just idealists doing what they think is right for most people.
Over and out.