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ALECThe 2023 legislative session was the first for Rep. Mindy McAlindon, a Centerton Republican new to public office. But she came on strong to cut taxes and gin up culture war discord over China, Israel, abortion, absentee ballots, implicit bias training and seemingly any other conservative catnip that came up.
For that, McAlindon has been shackled with a State Legislator of the Year Award from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a deep-pockets lobbying group that helps corporations steamroll the interests of average voters, all for the benefit of the wealthy few. Thank ALEC for the stand-your-ground laws that boost the sales of guns and ammo but leave lots of innocent people dead. ALEC is also behind many anti-democracy voter ID laws that scare legitimate voters away from the polls.
McAlindon earned the ALEC trophy for her bill to bar those who make decisions about state government employee retirement investments to consider environmental, social, corporate governance or other do-gooder factors. So, say, investors choosing where to put Arkansas teachers’ retirement money can’t opt out of fossil fuel or firearms options simply because they pose an existential threat to the students those teachers dedicated their careers to serve.
It’s hard to think of a greater dishonor for a public servant than a trophy earned with the glad and eager sacrifice of constituent interests to corporate ones. But McAlindon got to claim her award at an event in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I’m sure that was nice.
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