I recently attended the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Annual Meeting in Chicago. More than 1,200 state legislators, citizen groups, policy experts, and business leaders from around the nation attended. This conference allows state legislators to share policy ideas from around the country. We had extensive discussions about national healthcare, state funded healthcare programs, economic development, state fiscal reform, education issues; including but not limited to CHOICE programs and Charter schools, and many others.
Many of these discussions will assist me in creating policies that will benefit Indiana. ALEC is one of several groups, such as the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), that hold these types of annual meetings. I believe these groups, which engage in information sharing, are beneficial and informative. Overall, it was a very positive experience.
One discussion topic, that I believe is a major concern, was the federal government attacking our freedom of speech. This has been shown with the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) investigation of conservative groups and threatening of their 501(c) 3 statuses. We have to stand up to these bullying tactics the federal government is using to stop people and groups from expressing their views.
On the first day of the ALEC conference, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to companies and members requesting information about their participation with ALEC and if they had donated to the organization. Individuals or companies that donate to 501(c) 3 organizations, like ALEC, are supposedly protected by the IRS and the Supreme Court. They are protected so that they won’t suffer from political coercion.
Senator Durbin has no right to threaten anyone who might have a different opinion than him. Not only did he send out a letter threatening people who support ALEC, but he also had individuals there demonstrating against ALEC. While they have the right to be there and express their views, supporters should have that right too.
Senator Durbin also accused ALEC of supporting, “stand your ground” laws in his letter. He wanted to use this topic as a way to instill fear in the people supporting ALEC. He is using a hot topic such as the “stand your ground” laws to push his own agenda. He even stated in his letter that he would use the responses from the letters during a Senate committee hearing. “Stand your ground” laws weren’t discussed at the conference nor does ALEC have a model policy on it.
We, as a country, need to stand up against this type of harassment. Regardless of the political party, we can’t sit back and let the federal government take away our rights and freedoms. Too many people have sacrificed and died to preserve the freedoms that many of us take for granted today. It would be a shame for us as a country, to allow bullies to disregard our rights for their own political gain.
