The American Legislative Exchange Council, a major force behind harmful legislation enacted at the state level, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an Oct. 4 gala in Washington, D.C.
ALEC, founded in 1973 by right-wing political operative Paul “We Don’t Want Everyone to Vote” Weyrich, is a key part of the massive political infrastructure that corporations and right-wing foundations began building after the distribution of what is known as the “Powell Memo” – a warning from future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell that leftist ideology hostile to the free market was infesting America’s colleges and other institutions and a call for corporate America to fight back by creating its own institutions. 
People For the American Way documented these political investments in “Buying a Movement: Right Wing Foundations and American Politics,” published in 1996, which noted that ALEC’s executive director had declared, “This is the infrastructure that will reclaim the states for our movement.”
Many of the organizations created in answer to Powell’s call, including ALEC and the Heritage Foundation, are now preparing to flex their political muscles in an all-out war on the federal agencies that protect American workers, consumers, communities, and the environment to be carried out by the next Republican president.
#powellmemo #wayrich #alec #heritagefoundation #rightwing
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-american-legislative-exchange-council-50-years-of-making-america-less-fair-less-safe-less-democratic/