There has been a pressure campaign against corporate sponsors of the American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC) led by Color of Change and some of the same groups targeting conservative talk radio:
Here’s how it works. An issue which is neutral, such as voter i.d. laws, is portrayed as racist and hostile to minorities. The advertiser then is confronted with a flood of social media contracts threatening, sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly, with a boycott for supporting “racist” laws.
There are few corporations, not even ones as large as Coca-Cola, which can risk being labeled “racist” or as “supporting racism” regardless of how inaccurate and outlandish the accusations. It is toxic, and groups like Media Matters and Color of Change know it.
Faced with the accusation and thousands or tens of thousands of people who are willing to spread the lie, the corporation caves in to the pressure and withdraws the advertising or sponsorship.
It worked. ALEC just announced that it would stop addressing Voter I.D. and Stand Your Ground legislation:
“Today we are redoubling our efforts on the economic front, a priority that has been the hallmark of our organization for decades. Fostering the exchange of pro-growth, solutions-oriented ideas is precisely why ALEC exists.
“To that end, our legislative board last week unanimously agreed to further our work on policies that will help spur innovation and competitiveness across the country.
“We are refocusing our commitment to free-market, limited government and pro-growth principles, and have made changes internally to reflect this renewed focus.
“We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy. The remaining budgetary and economic issues will be reassigned.
There is joy in Mudville.
Think Progress declared “Progressive Victory.” David Dayan at Firedoglake declared that “ALEC Retreats.”
But, Color of Change isn’t satisfied with Victory or Retreat:
ALEC’s latest statement is nothing more than a PR stunt aimed at diverting attention from its agenda, which has done serious damage to our communities. To simply say they are stopping non-economic work doesn’t guarantee that ALEC will not continue to push laws that endanger African Americans and trample our voting rights. Shutting down one task force does not provide justice to the millions of Americans whose lives are impacted by these dangerous and discriminatory laws courtesy of ALEC and its corporate backers. It’s clear that major corporations were in bed with an institution that has worked against basic American values such as the right to vote. Now that these companies are aware of what they’ve supported, what will they do about it? If ALEC’s corporate supporters will not hold the institution accountable for the damage it has caused nationwide, then the ColorOfChange community will hold them accountable.”
Appeasement never works. This it Total Politica War. Get it?
Update: 9th Circuit en banc upholds key voter i.d. provision in Arizona law.
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Comments
I am so sick of the good guys retreating.
Me too.
I’ve sat here for half an hour trying to think of something profound to say but your statement says it all.
Don’t they realize that Color of Change can now smell blood in the water and they will press forward with more and more demands? Nothing short of total annihilation will satisfy them now.
ALEC is right to refocus. They are supposed to be about economic issues.
That same work can be better done by others, in any case.
Just FYI, Color Of Change appears to be about 10 people, in reality.
Breitbarts can take lessons from this. No reason not to beat them at their own games.
“Just FYI, Color Of Change appears to be about 10 people, in reality.”
Sounds like that’s about to change – courtesy of Geo Soros’ MoveOn.
The Left’s Spring Offensive
Front Page Magazine reports:
“Communist Van Jones and MoveOn have begun training up to 100,000 activists across the nation in the fine art of terrorizing corporations and the general public in order to force change that the American people don’t want.
The activists plan to disrupt shareholder meetings of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and 30 other large corporations. They also plan to conduct “actions” against education lender Sallie Mae and businesses they accuse of profiting from student indebtedness. Their strategy is remarkably similar to the subversive plan pushed by SEIU’s Stephen Lerner that aims to destroy the nation’s financial system.”
http://www.nalert.blogspot.com/2012/04/lefts-spring-offensive.html
Yeah, I’m aware.
But wait and see. A lot of that could be big talk, which is a specialty of OWS.
OWS? Are you linking OWS to ColorOfChange?
Are you NOT…???
I’ll take that as legalese for: yes.
I connect all such groups, because I watch how they function, share goals, messaging, tactics, and how they share personnel.
You didn’t bother to answer me in your drive to snark.
Do you NOT see them as connected?
They are all connected. If you don’t understand that it’s time to open your eyes. This is going to be a nasty year.
Speaking of Breitbart, he was at last years’ True the Vote meeting in Houston.
Color of Change used 285,000 people to get rid of Glenn Beck. “Over 285,000 Color of Change members have participated in our campaign against him since it began in July 2009. Because of them, Beck’s show lost over 300 advertisers.” “Oakland’s Color of Change was main force in Glenn Beck boycotts,” SF Chronicle.
Color of Change and similar groups will silence speech on the right every time because they have the bodies. “Just call them racist” works every time.
Color of Change said: “Now that these companies are aware of what they’ve supported, what will they do about it? … the ColorOfChange community will hold them accountable.”
That’s a race card shake down. Those corporate supporters who pulled their support from ALEC better alert their attorneys to expect a call/visit from Van Jones extorting annual monetary recompense to call off the dogs.
Breitbart.com interviews True The Vote founder.
Recommended reading –
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/15/engelbrecht-if-elections-arent-fair-we-arent-free
They learned this tactic from the chief race hustler, Rev. Jesse Jackson.
It’s disconcerting when American interests succumb to hostile pressure. How are cooperatives such as “Think Progress” and “Color of Change” capable of exerting such extraordinary leverage over Americans?
Anyway, there is only one legitimate reason to oppose voter identification laws and that is to disenfranchise American citizens. With the government spending in excess of $1 trillion annually on welfare and non-contributory transfer payment programs, they can certainly afford to provide positive identification to all American citizens in order to preserve the integrity of the vote. It’s telling that “democratic” interests are, once again, at the forefront of subverting civil rights.
It’s time to hold the civil and human “rights” businesses accountable for their continuing effort to realize negative progress. Both “Think Progress” and “Color of Change” have demonstrated their motivations and actions are incompatible with American governance and the rights of American citizens it is designed to preserve.
On a related note, Exxon-Mobil is now #2! Thank you, American subversives. Your priorities are clearly selfish and alien.
How are cooperatives such as “Think Progress” and “Color of Change” capable of exerting such extraordinary leverage over Americans?
answer: They do so in collusion with fellow travelers, the Democrat-Media Complex (aptly named by Andrew Breitbart): cbsabcnbc, New York Slimes and local radical rags controlling the narrative.
My concern is where their interests and funding lie. This is not generally a concern, but they demonstrate they do not support American principles, and therefore do not support American interests. Through their effort to manipulate perception they demonstrate a hostile nature to America and her citizens. With the demonstration of selective indignation and advocacy for both civil (e.g. voter fraud) and human rights (e.g. denigration of individual dignity, elective abortion of developing human life) violations they reveal their true nature.
This reality is progressively surreal. I observe the individual actors and fail to fully characterize the dynamic which motivates this nonsense. These groups, including: Think Progress and Color of Change, are clearly hostile to American interests.
There is a general, global consensus that Americans are the alphas in this world. How is it that hostile interests manage to exert such extraordinary leverage and force, ostensibly, powerful American interests to yield their domain?
“the alphas in this world”?
Master race, much?
Personality types are not a “race”, moron.
Gawd, do you know ANYTHING?
And STILL, you insist on stinking up the place with your trolling…
If any of you really want to know how this works, I suggest you read the book Shakedown which tells how Jesse Jackson managed to line his pockets and push his agenda of equality of outcome and affirmative action all the while getting very rich himself.
What Van Jones’ group did was follow the master (Jackson) in using the race card to force groups to cave to his agenda. But some groups will realize that if every black American boycotts their business, they are going to lose no more than 10% by standing firm and not caving to such obscene pressures. Whites will continue to spend their money on things that will please them and Hispanics don’t suffer “white” guilt.
It is long passed time to tell the poverty pimps and the Marxist promoters like Jones to get lost. Once one group stands up to such blackmail, other groups will follow.
I really do loath these people.
So very, very much.
Maybe somebody here has studied organizations, and can give me an “amen”…
ALEC was wise to refocus, BECAUSE…
they got into this as a result (it appears) of “mission creep”, which is a predictable problem of organizational behavior. Their MAIN job is to help in the area of economic policy. They are returning to that.
They were VULNERABLE to this kind of attack, where other outfits would not be. Why? They get most of their funding from businesses. Businesses are NOT going to be your heroes or mine, and I would argue it is NOT THEIR JOB. They SHOULD have ONE main focus…returning profit to the capital invested in them.
The NRA, for instance, is MUCH better able to carry the fight for the civil right to self-defense, because they do NOT depend on business donations.
Likewise, a True The Vote is better able to fight for voter ID laws.
Several of you treat this as a defeat. I can’t see it that way. It is more like the situation where an anti-aircraft battery pulls itself together following a fluid battlefield situation.
Regardless of how ALEC got there, they were there. Who cares if they got there by mission creep?
This is a defeat for the conservative cause however you slice it. Color of Change got its scalp and is ready to take on another conservative group with renewed vigor. ALEC is defeated, most likely permanently diminished. Pressure tactics against American corporations have been proven successful yet again.
Nobody is more qualified to speak the truth than anyone else is.
Nobody said that.
But ORGANIZATIONS are often better equipped or structured to do a SPECIFIC JOB.
That is why there are anti-aircraft batteries, infantry units, and armor.
When people set up an organization, and charter it for a purpose, it is NOT right that other people use it for something else.
See Constitution, U.S.
Oh, give it a rest, Rags. They caved, plain and simple.
So, like the Collective…
“Shut up, you explain”
Think. Give it a try.
I see your point, and it’s valid.
however, after giving it a think–I’m leaving more towards quiznilo’s position.
As stated, it’s too late for retreat. They’re already toast.
Further, they conceded not on their own accord, but under the weight of the Soros machine.
Further still, the issues at hand were not and are not “political”, and are in fact, just causes.
“We no longer champion fair and fraudless elections because a pinko commie might call us bad names” isn’t a retreat.
It’s a white flag.
I agree completely with you Browndog and just sent them an email expressing the same thoughts and included a link to this discussion.
Let’s try this, from first principles…
“A business…outside of obeying the laws and regulations…has only one obligation: to preserve and earn a profit on the capital invested in it.”
Agree or not?
Are you saying that the mere existence of ALEC is a mistake?
Hardly. ALEC was started to do something by its members.
Could you answer my question, please?
Agreed.
Make your point.
Would you agree with me that it is wrong for Collectivists to try to subvert the managers of a business to serve their own ends?
Like it or not Ragspierre is correct, instead of Corporations funneling money to ALEC, individuals should focus of sending money to True the Vote ( http://www.truethevote.org/ ), they have a donation page.
Hopefully, this will increase interest in their upcoming True the Vote National Summit April 27 – 28 in Houston.
They have been working to insure fraud free elections for about 3(?) years.
Recently they helped purge the Wisconsin voter rolls of fraudulent names leading up to the Walker, and others, recall election.
You can sign up to volunteer on the website.
Wrong, all Ragisphere did was spin the topic on a tangent.
There is no way to put a positive spin on a small vocal group using mob tactics to disrupt efforts to curb voter fraud, something that has broad support. Period.
Since actual voter fraud is nearly non-existent, voter ID efforts in that regard are sort of pointless.
However, the true goal, voter suppression, will perhaps be a bit harder to achieve now.
“Since actual voter fraud is nearly non-existent, voter ID efforts in that regard are sort of pointless.”
You must love Color of Change and the DOJ voting rights section.
Voter fraud has been around since the first vote and has determined some very important elections, unfortunately.
Your fellow travelers know all to well “It not the vote that counts, it’s who counts the votes”.
Dems are masters of voter fraud.
Photo id should have been required years ago.
“Wrong, all Ragisphere did was spin the topic on a tangent.”
No, what he did was point out how easy it is to disrupt corporate financed political issues.
It is better to have a large grass roots effort, companies will always protect their bottom line. It’s very hard to intimidate half an electorate. True the Vote is a grass root effort to stop voter fraud. Grass roots efforts will always be more effective than Astro Turf, which describes Color of Change.
Ever heard of the Tea Party?
Meeeoww.
Haha – we solved that problem 112 years ago .
Simple . Every citizen must register at adulthood & thereafter vote at every local state & national election plus any referendums until 80 or mentally unable .
Nobody wants to pay the fine & elections are well attended -99.9% !
correction – it took 24 years after federation to fully co ordinate .
So there is hope for you for 2026 . It does take a lot of organisation & education that freedom= responsibility.
So far no ID has been required & fraud is rare but makes for good conspiracy theories.
Most people whine about this but are happy when they get there .
That’s how it is done in communist countries. Everybody votes and every vote is for the communist leader. That’s how the communist leaders get 99.9% of the vote and the opponent is sent off to the gulag.
What country is BannedbytheGuardian writing from? The UK, perhaps? Not exactly communist.
Your silly whining about communism (it’s gone, dude, outside of Cuba and NK, wake up) is pointless.
However, it doesn’t hurt to speculate that an America in which barely half the population can even be bothered to vote is not exactly functioning in an ‘informed citizenry’ fashion.
HEHE
You are not much of a lawyer. Try asking the accused a question.
But no you jump to a conclusion which is stupid.
Blah.
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/04/17/arizonas-voter-id-law-upheld-by-ninth-circuit-court-of-appeals/
hehe.
“The court, however, found that the federal National Voter Registration Act trumps another section of the Arizona law that requires people to prove their citizenship in order to vote.
That federal law allows voters to fill out a mail-in voter registration card and swear they are citizens under penalty of perjury, but it doesn’t require them to show proof as Arizona’s law does.”
We’ll see…
But don’t they have a list of citizens & thus check when they register?
Conscription seemed to do fine.
Conscript all citizens to the ballot .
After all “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.’
Written by a socialist and sung by a dead drug addict.
I have demonstrated with the Tea Party before and I will again if they get behind the issue of voter ID. None of our votes mean anything if we let these Socialist dilute our vote. This issue is critical to save our country!
Somebody already was quick on the mark to dislike my little suggestion above.
You are going to have to do more than demonstrate & whine.
So which sponsors caved? I’d like to know so that I can buy from their competition.