...I think it would do everyone well to stop looking at every issue as left or right. (this is why the 2 party system works so well to exploit a political system)
I have moved in this direction as well. I've never seen it defined as succinctly as by Glenn Beck, nor as articulately as by Mark Levin. For all these years, in our support of Republicans in general, we have been arguing over tyranny or tyranny-lite. I think there is no question but that the elections of '10 were a signal that the people are aware of the difference now between the Republican party style "conservatism" as it has been manifested, and the constitution.
The large corporations should not be allowed to define the conservative agenda.
Define it? OK, I'm with you. I think the electorate should define it through their representation. But corporations are essentially a group of people included in the electorate overall, represented by the same politicians as everyone else. They have interests, just like people do. They have corporate interests. They should be able to hold politicians accountable, just as any group of people are allowed to do so. Should they "define" the agenda? No. Should they have a seat at the table? Should they have the ability to redress grievances? I see no clear way to prevent it under the constitution.
For example, ALEC wants to put more people in jail to increase demand to build and operate prisons and are succeeding, we have quintupled our prison population in 3 decades. In my home state of Wisconsin they reversed early release recently while studies on recidivism directly contradicts policy which unjustifiably costs the state a pile of money. The bill to remove early release was sponsored by Scott Sudor and is also a long time member of ALEC and on the Public Safety Task Force which also deals with and prison issues. A major player in ALEC the Corrections Corporation of America who is the largest for profit prison company in America.
I won't say you're wrong, but I will say I'm not prepared to accept this claim based on the information at the website you linked. It clearly has an anti-corporate agenda, and the cynical claim that a company wants to unjustifiably put people in prison so that it can get contracts for more prisons seems - a bit "off" to me. Doesn't pass the sniff test without more sources.
I can find other examples of this 'temptation' such as free trade. Regardless of their goals, large corporations writing legislation should be a red flag for all of us. What we do see is that there are a lot of the same funding a lot of the same faces and a lot of the same ideals with the tea party. I don't think there is a pure tea party ALEC connection but many of the players are the same. Big influence from large corporations is very dangerous and we should be ill at ease to let them define the conservative agenda.
As I said earlier, I agree that any group of individuals writing (or defining) legislation other than congressmen at the behest of their constituency is a problem.
I think currently we have 10 state governors that are or were ALEC members and roughly 5000 assembly members and senators. We pay for the annual membership fee for them to sit down with large corporations and discuss legislation where we don't have a seat at the table. It's not lobbying and they do not have to follow the rules and regulations on lobbying.
I don't see a problem with politicians discussing legislation with corporate interests. I'm not anti-corporation. I think corporations are good on the balance.
All I can say is that if their agenda includes crafting bills to attack worker rights (sounds like they oppose Big Labor), rolling back environmental regulations (sounds like they oppose the EPA), privatizing education (an absolutely wonderful idea), deregulating major industries (also an absolutely wonderful idea), and passing voter ID laws (an idea that I do not believe America can survive without), then I can hardly look at this "ALEC" group as a manifestation of anti-conservative, anti-constitutional evil. At first blush, it sounds to me like they're on the right page. Further, it seems to me that the "ALECExposed" website is against all those good things ALEC is fighting for.