Lisa
Graves was one of the creators of the website ALECExposed. She has followed the
money, and she here describes a dangerous threat
to American democracy by the billionaire Koch brothers, ALEC, and others who
seek control by the super-rich.
They want to bust unions and privatize schools.
Graves says that progressives must stand together. I agree.
That’s why I grow
frustrated when union members attack their unions. Of course, they should fight
to win democratic control of their unions.
But when they begin hurling insults
and invective at their allies, they do the work of their common foe.
Graves
writes:
“Their
scheming to shove America further to the far right should be a serious wake-up
call for anyone who cares about our nation’s soul.
“As
Charles and David Koch promised their billionaire buddies, they’ve assessed how
the quarter billion dollars they helped raise and spread across the country
failed spectacularly in the 2012 elections. And, they’ve made adjustments to
their battle plans to win more this time…..
“If
unions and their leaders want to stand up to the Koch machine – which has
sought to gut union power for decades – I say right on. Nurses, teachers, and
factory workers ought to have a chance to negotiate with power for better wages
and working conditions than each could negotiate with their powerful employer
alone.
“Thank
goodness they’ve all stood up to the Kochs’ neo-Bircher worldview, in their own
ways.
“Thank
goodness they understand that civil society — indeed, our very democracy — is
what’s at stake.
“I
stand against the cult of greed peddled by the Kochs.
“I’m
utterly opposed to the Koch-y brand of Ayn Rand’s dystopian propaganda and the
updated version of this kind of every-man-for-himself economic Darwinism
peddled by Rand Paul in blue jeans. I don’t want America’s great dream for our
people to be shrunk into a members’ only club, letting the richest few rule
with the less lucky stuck as servants struggling to survive.
“A
civil society — a true democracy – recognizes that investing in our shared
future makes our nation stronger.
“A
healthy democracy fully funds our public institutions that serve all of the
American people and helps those living on the brink, as part of our social
contract in recognition of our common humanity and the fact that we all face
illness and aging out of work….
“It’s
about having truly public schools that provide our children with empowered
teachers trained in the art and science of teaching rather than inexperienced
and un-certified stand-ins trying to do it on the cheap so a corporation can
pay better dividends to stock speculators.
“The
right-wing alternative to truly public schools that the Koch deregulation
machine has helped spawn is “charter” schools paid for with our tax dollars.
“We’ve
seen too many charters run by fly-by-night operators feeding kids religious
gruel or designed by corporations to enrich Wall Street speculators through
cutting what’s spent on kids, teachers, and classrooms but a healthy budget for
slick ads blanketing the airwaves and underwritten by taxpayers.
“Charles
and David Koch have spent decades trying to get rid of “government” schools, as
touted in David’s run for the White House in 1980. That’s why it’s now
practically a litmus test for Republican presidential candidates to list the
Department of Education among the government agencies they are in a race to
eliminate.
“We
need all hands on deck to stop them.
“That’s
one of the reasons why attacks on the DA or union leaders like Randi Weingarten
as a false equivalent to the Koch cabal are so misplaced. They are not
equivalent because the goals of the Kochs matter and investing in an
alternative to the Kochs’ agenda matters, a lot…..
“But,
as the person who launched ALECexposed with my team in Madison, I can tell you
that Weingarten has been totally stalwart in standing up to ALEC and its
anti-public education agenda, which is fueled by the Koch family fortune and
other rich families — along with corporations that profit from privatizing
public schools, of course.
“The
American Federation of Teachers has been rock solid in the fight against ALEC,
consistently devoting staff time week in and week out for three years to expose
ALEC, due to her personal commitment. The ongoing public campaign on ALEC would
not have had the success it has had without AFT’s work and her leadership, and
without the work of many devoted colleagues across the country, including the
National Education Association and other organizations, bloggers, and concerned
citizens nationwide…..
“I
know we need a more progressive America.
“And
progressives need to get better at using their power to persuade each other and
to win better policies.
“But
attacking genuine progressives for banding together to take on the Kochs or for
not being pure enough is foolish sport. And the right loves it when
progressives fight. It makes their effort to tear down the left so much easier.
“So,
let’s get real.
“Because
there’s a real-world war going on to kill our public schools, outsource our
public institutions to private companies not accountable to us, and destroy key
government constraints on corporate power…..”
