Update: Add Facebook to the list.
The American Legislative Exchange Council has been around for over 4 decades but it really became powerful after the 2010 elections when Republicans gained control of state legislators. ALEC represents everything that that populists like Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt opposed. Just yesterday Google announced it was leaving the organization:
“The facts of climate change are not in question anymore. Everyone understands climate change is occurring, and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place,” Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told NPR’s Diane Rehm in explaining the decision. “And so we should not be aligned with such people — they’re just, they’re just literally lying.”
Over at Talking Points Memo Dylan Thomas gives us a list of major US corporations who have also left ALEC. The list is impressive.
- MICROSOFT, August 2014
- VISA, December 2013
- MERCK AND CO., September 2012
- GENERAL MOTORS, July 2012
- WALGREENS, July 2012
- WAL-MART, May 2012
- AMAZON, May 2012
- PROCTOR AND GAMBLE, April 2012
- MCDONALDS, April 2012
- KRAFT, April 2012
- COCA COLA, April 2012
Some of this may have been for PR pressure – yes customer pressure can work. A couple mention ALEC’s pushing for gun rights.