Wondering what evil looks like? I don't know, but ALEC is pretty close.

Wondering why Florida has a “License to Kill” law that contributed to the death of Trayvon Martin? Or where tough-on-immigration laws like Arizona’s SB 1070 come from? There is this thing you should know about. It’s called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, and it’s the closest thing to pure evil that I’ve been able to identify in national U.S. politics.

Okay, that might be an exaggeration. But not a big one. ALEC is a place for industry and special interest groups to come together with legislators and draft model legislation. Corporations pay large sums of money to become members, and legislators who have a cause they’re working on (say, cracking down on immigration) can team up with corporate lobbyists to draft a piece of legislation. This is what happened with Arizona’s SB 1070, the bill that allowed law enforcement to stop anyone who they thought looked “illegal” and demand proof of legal residency in the United States. That bill was based on a model piece of legislation drafted by the ALEC Public Safety and Elections Committee at a time when both the National Rifle Association and the Corrections Corporation of America were members of the committee. Corrections Corp has since dropped their ALEC membership, but I’m sure they’re making out nicely with all the new immigration detainees that Arizona’s largely privatized prison system has to take care of.

I could list dozens of examples like this, but the wonderful folks at the Center for Media and Democracy have set up an ALEC Exposed Wiki, so I don’t have to. Check it out. Read up on the way ALEC works at the Nation. See what Paul Krugman thinks. This is a hugely important shadowy underground anti-democratic machine of evil. At the very least, you should know what they’re up to.