AARP represents millions of senior citizens. It lobbies to protect social security, health insurance, and every government program that helps its members.
Yet AARP belongs to ALEC, the far-right organization that advocates elimination of government safety nets, privatization of government functions, and unfettered corporate action in pursuit of profit.
Under pressure from unions (read the key letter below in link), AARP dropped out of ALEC.
Politico reports:
“At 3:32 p.m. Thursday afternoon, we reached out to AARP to ask them whether they were going to renew their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a controversial conservative legislative group focus on state politics. We wrote that we were going to do an item about it. Groups like AFSCME, Social Security Works, ClimateTruth.org and others were launching a campaign and had just begun circulating a letter, asking AARP to leave ALEC. At 5:58 p.m., Anna got an email from AARP saying, “We will not renew our membership to ALEC. AARP will continue to explore avenues that will enhance our interaction with organizations and elected officials that represent different perspectives in order to further the issues important to Americans 50+ and their families.” The letter that did it: http://politi.co/2aoPzzM
Puzzling. Why did it ever join?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Very disappointed/disgusted that AARP joined the smart-ALECs in the first place. It took fierce blowback from AARP’s members before they saw the light. AARP has usually been a strong supporter of Social Security and Medicare and has lobbied to keep these programs intact and even to strengthen them. I hope that continues. Why did it ever join? Follow the money.
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Joe…it has been my understanding since the inception of AARP, that it is the non-profit arm of United Health Care. It was set up to attract seniors to purchase their health care ‘secondary’ policies from UHC. It has always been a product of the insurance industry. No surprise at all that it has been part of ALEC.
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Let’s hope “different perspectives” is not caving on Social Security like Obama was prepared to do.
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Puzzling indeed: why did AARP–ever–think ALEC has the best interests of senior citizens in the country in its agenda? Weird.
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The report at Truthout about ALEC and AARP, has comments that follow it, which summarize the bio’s of key current and former AARP managers. The professional backgrounds of the people listed, raise interesting questions.
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The letter campaign worked!
as to why the joined…. THEY ARE AN INSURANCE COMPANY …first ,last and always… PROFIT IS THIER MOTIVE!
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YES…
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Yep. My mom is about to turn 65 and is being flooded with secondary insurance offerings. But she may not actually need the secondary insurance. The problem is that she doesn’t know for sure, because no one will sit down with her and look at her situation with her. All the people offering “free information about Medicare” only want to sell stuff. AARP is the worst about this.
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Like Joe said–I think there were an overwhelming amount of calls from AARP members threatening to cancel memberships-many did. I called thanks to a post in BAT’s on FB regarding an article written in the LA Times exposing this odd relationship between ALEC and AARP. In speaking with three different reps., none of them even knew about ALEC, what it is trying to undermine, how they buy elections and legislation. To the rep. in Colorado, I mentioned the Koch brothers (she didn’t even know who they were), but wanted to know more info–so I told her. When speaking with a manager in Sacramento, she read me an AARP prewritten statement. I kept peppering her with questions. Then I spoke with a rep in Texas–more canned statements. Ultimately, I suggested that these individuals do their due diligence and find out what purpose ALEC serves and whether the people behind it really advocate for them. Ignorance certainly was bliss to these three–maybe not so much anymore.
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The war is won, one person at a time. You have your quota for 3 days, if you’re like me. I try to reach one person, who may not know about the multiple threats to democracy, each day.
IMO, Bernie took off like wildfire b/c the grassroots had been lit.
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Great goal Linda…and I agree about Bernie followers.
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Linda–excellent point, & this has been a battle-cry of this blog, as well–change things, by street, by village, by town, by city by state, by nation, by world. “Think globally, but act locally.” This–& some other recent election victories as reported by Diane shows that:
Yes WE can…& WE WILL!
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AARP reportedly was not only an ALEC member but gave additional funds as a conference sponsor. Did AARP also promise not to contribute funds of any sort to ALEC conferences or other activities?
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A corporate sponsor of ALEC pays $25,000
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Let your state legislator know you are happy about AARP dropping its membership in ALEC. Also find out who in your State Legislature are ALEC members. If one of yours is, you ought to tell him or her how you feel about corporations trying to control your state laws.
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A couple of years ago, I contacted my state representative (Ohio). He replied that ALEC is a “government agency”. Yes, stupid or lying.
Since ALEC provides perks to state legislators, I tend to think the latter. Whether a misunderstanding was intentional or not, we can’t know but, apparently, some state legislators erroneously equate ALEC with NCSL. The two do NOT compare. NCSL, when I reviewed it, was informational/avoided ideology. I e-mailed NCSL, asking them to clarify to state legislators that ALEC was different. I received no reply.
PRWatch (Center for Media and Democracy) has ALEC draft bills at its site and then matches them to proposed or enacted laws, by state.
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