5. Alabama Arise
Alabama Arise’s website proclaims that they’re seeking “social, economic and environmental justice.” In other words, Alabama Arise’s team of policy analysts construct wealth redistribution schemes and pressure Alabama’s elected officials to make them the law of the land.
Some of their current goals include seeing ObamaCare fully implemented, vastly expanding Medicaid entitlements and repealing Alabama’s immigration law.
4. Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice
It’s only fitting that Alabama Arise’s sidekick organization comes in right next to them on our list of the top liberal groups in the state.
Appleseed gets right to the point on their website:
During 2011 and 2012 we continued to work in collaboration with Alabama Arise on supporting the implementation of the ACA [ObamaCare], focusing particularly on the state implementing a health insurance exchange and the expansion of Medicaid.
The Appleseed crew stays in the Bentley Administration’s ear pushing for the expansion of Medicaid, which the Governor has consistently rejected.
Other Appleseed initiatives include pushing legislation to squash the free market and implementing profit caps on industries they don’t like.
3. Southern Poverty Law Center
The Montgomery-based SPLC is known nationwide for utilizing the courts to move the country further and further to the left.
Most recently they filed a suit in federal court against Alabama’s first school choice bill. Ironically, SPLC deputy legal counsel Jerri Katzerman told MSNBC that they are “fighting for all children who are in failing schools and don’t have an option to escape them.”
Because stopping school choice legislation gives kids and families more choices, of course.
2. AARP Alabama
The AARP at this point deserves to be on any state’s list of top liberal groups. As Yellowhammer has laid out in great detail, the AARP has effectively become a de facto arm of the Obama administration.
But in Alabama specifically, they have focused their efforts and vast financial resources on helping environmental groups establish a foothold in our state.
The AARP is relying on their members simply not realizing how far left they have moved. But some of them are waking up. 60,000 AARP members left the organization in a single month after the group came out in support of ObamaCare.
But what about Alabamians? Have they figured out the AARP doesn’t represent their values?
Some signs point to “yes.”
An Alabamian recently sponsored a Republican National Committee resolution condemning the AARP’s involvement in Obama’s “War on Coal.” And calls for AARP’s Alabama group to “stop pushing Obama’s agenda” have started to flood social media and emails circulating among the conservative grassroots.
1. Alabama Education Association
The school employees union claims the top spot for a lot of reasons, but one more than any other: money.
Yellowhammer reported in May that the AEA’s board of directors voted to dedicate $4 million to what they are calling “The Grand Plan for 2014.” Their grand plan’s singular goal is to erode the Republican stronghold in the legislature. They’ve hired Obama’s political organization to help them pull it off, and this past weekend sent their operatives to Democracy for America’s progressive campaign academy.
The AEA’s political team is astute enough to realize they’re not going to be able to win with Democrat candidates like they have in the past. So they’ve launched a slow-drip campaign to make inroads with tea partiers and are already funding faux conservative candidates to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a pop.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
