By the time this session of the Tennessee General Assembly comes to an end, Tennesseans understandably should feel a little like the animals used in laboratory experiments — at least the ones that survive.
Our state, thanks to the dominance of a single political party, has been selected for a series of not-so-scientific experiments. The objective? Whatever Charles and David Koch want it to be.
The billionaire Kochs do not live in Tennessee and never have. That is not important, as they, through their group Americans For Prosperity (AFP), and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), also not Tennessee-based, are increasingly deciding what laws the General Assembly should impose on the people of our state.
The Kochs are famous nationally for using their fortunes to advance causes that promote their interests or simply their philosophy, and increasingly they are getting involved in state legislatures. Invariably, their agenda is anti-worker protections, anti-environmental regulation, anti-health care reform. In other words, “anti-” the kinds of laws that majorities of Americans tend to support. And ALEC’s lobbyists have been busy in Tennessee for a few years now, usually drafting so-called model legislation such as the failed attempt to emulate Arizona’s unconstitutional 2010 immigration reforms and trying to spread fear of Muslims with anti-Shariah legislation.
