Last week, I wrote about the National Association of Scholars and its spinoff Civics Alliance writing Iowa’s newly mandated social studies curriculum. They’re part of a network of conservative think tanks cutting and pasting their brilliant ideas into law in red states.
Republicans who run the Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than Donald Trump’s necktie, can’t get enough of this stuff.
But a couple of readers said it was unfair to lump all think tanks in with these conservative bill mills. And I must plead guilty. I’m a big old lumper.
There are think tanks seeking to serve the public interest. They conduct research and analyze data with hopes of informing policymaking, rather than dictating it.
These are not among the outside conservative groups generally bankrolled by a small number of very wealthy people hoping to see their personal ideology dominate while putting another notch in their red state gun belt.
You know, like the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The Florida-based “think tank” is a charitable organization under IRS rules. According to a CNN report earlier this year, the FGA received more than $44 million from six foundations founded by billionaires. That Includes $18.1 million from the Ed Uhlein Family Foundation, named after Richard Uhlein’s father. Richard co-founded the Wisconsin-based Uline Corporation, which sells packaging materials to businesses.
Clearly, he made his money thinking inside the box. OK, sorry.
FGA is part of the State Policy Network, an alliance of conservative think tanks. According to a 2023 Washington Post story, the network’s president referred to its work as the “Ikea model” of advocacy. Give states prewritten bills and provide tools, namely lobbying and research, to shove the bills to passage.
No crappy little wrenches here. Are they aware Ikea is from socialist Sweden?
Last year, FGA named Iowa as one of five “super states” where it would focus lobbying.
The FGA’s state lobbying arm is the Opportunity Solutions Project, also based in Florida. Gov. Kim Reynolds often says Iowa should copy Florida policies.
Opportunity Solutions has its fingerprints all over several pieces of legislation in Iowa, including bills to loosen child labor restrictions, tighten restrictions on families receiving food assistance and throw up more barriers to receiving unemployment benefits.
Opportunity Solutions also backed changes in Iowa elections law in 2021, including a shortened early voting period, absentee ballot restrictions and curtailing the powers of county auditors to run elections. The measures stemmed from Donald Trump’s false contention that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.
Maybe you’ve heard of him. He’s been in the news lately.
This year, among the bills backed by Opportunity Solutions were measures making local elections partisan, giving the governor’s office virtual veto power over administrative rules needed to implement legislation and repealing the entire Iowa Code every 10 years.
Those bills didn’t pass, but bills the group supported, eliminating gender balance on boards and commissions and outlawing guaranteed income programs, did gain passage.
Another issue championed by FGA and Opportunity Solutions is cracking down on companies that consider the environmental, social and governance effects of their investments. The Floridians have been pushing hard in recent years to convince red states to attack such practices, which harm oil producers and gun manufacturers. So much for the free market.
OSP-backed bills filed in Iowa in 2023 and 2024 would prohibit the state from doing business with companies that favor “woke investing” over pure profit. The bills have not yet cleared the Legislature, but just give Opportunity Solutions time.
Much of this stuff has been sold to numerous red states, where the Opportunity Solutions Project also has worked hard to shred the social safety net and stop Medicaid expansion. Tough love, bootstraps, etc.
They didn’t want to throw families off food assistance. But it’s for their own good.
So, again, laws affecting hundreds of thousands of Iowans are being concocted far from Iowa by wealthy folks and their minions who care little about our state. The emphasis of these efforts is to work with policymakers quietly behind the scenes. The voices of Iowans are not part of the equation.
So this fall, when you see Republican candidates’ ads showing them looking concerned and nodding, talking to Iowans and claiming how much they care about what Iowans want, you’ll know how phony it is.
Instead, they should show a well-dressed guy jetting in from Florida carrying a stack of brilliant ideas. That’s who our leaders listen to. And we take the lumps.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
Republicans who run the Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than Donald Trump’s necktie, can’t get enough of this stuff.
But a couple of readers said it was unfair to lump all think tanks in with these conservative bill mills. And I must plead guilty. I’m a big old lumper.
There are think tanks seeking to serve the public interest. They conduct research and analyze data with hopes of informing policymaking, rather than dictating it.
These are not among the outside conservative groups generally bankrolled by a small number of very wealthy people hoping to see their personal ideology dominate while putting another notch in their red state gun belt.
You know, like the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The Florida-based “think tank” is a charitable organization under IRS rules. According to a CNN report earlier this year, the FGA received more than $44 million from six foundations founded by billionaires. That Includes $18.1 million from the Ed Uhlein Family Foundation, named after Richard Uhlein’s father. Richard co-founded the Wisconsin-based Uline Corporation, which sells packaging materials to businesses.
Clearly, he made his money thinking inside the box. OK, sorry.
FGA is part of the State Policy Network, an alliance of conservative think tanks. According to a 2023 Washington Post story, the network’s president referred to its work as the “Ikea model” of advocacy. Give states prewritten bills and provide tools, namely lobbying and research, to shove the bills to passage.
No crappy little wrenches here. Are they aware Ikea is from socialist Sweden?
Last year, FGA named Iowa as one of five “super states” where it would focus lobbying.
The FGA’s state lobbying arm is the Opportunity Solutions Project, also based in Florida. Gov. Kim Reynolds often says Iowa should copy Florida policies.
Opportunity Solutions has its fingerprints all over several pieces of legislation in Iowa, including bills to loosen child labor restrictions, tighten restrictions on families receiving food assistance and throw up more barriers to receiving unemployment benefits.
Opportunity Solutions also backed changes in Iowa elections law in 2021, including a shortened early voting period, absentee ballot restrictions and curtailing the powers of county auditors to run elections. The measures stemmed from Donald Trump’s false contention that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.
Maybe you’ve heard of him. He’s been in the news lately.
This year, among the bills backed by Opportunity Solutions were measures making local elections partisan, giving the governor’s office virtual veto power over administrative rules needed to implement legislation and repealing the entire Iowa Code every 10 years.
Those bills didn’t pass, but bills the group supported, eliminating gender balance on boards and commissions and outlawing guaranteed income programs, did gain passage.
Another issue championed by FGA and Opportunity Solutions is cracking down on companies that consider the environmental, social and governance effects of their investments. The Floridians have been pushing hard in recent years to convince red states to attack such practices, which harm oil producers and gun manufacturers. So much for the free market.
OSP-backed bills filed in Iowa in 2023 and 2024 would prohibit the state from doing business with companies that favor “woke investing” over pure profit. The bills have not yet cleared the Legislature, but just give Opportunity Solutions time.
Much of this stuff has been sold to numerous red states, where the Opportunity Solutions Project also has worked hard to shred the social safety net and stop Medicaid expansion. Tough love, bootstraps, etc.
They didn’t want to throw families off food assistance. But it’s for their own good.
So, again, laws affecting hundreds of thousands of Iowans are being concocted far from Iowa by wealthy folks and their minions who care little about our state. The emphasis of these efforts is to work with policymakers quietly behind the scenes. The voices of Iowans are not part of the equation.
So this fall, when you see Republican candidates’ ads showing them looking concerned and nodding, talking to Iowans and claiming how much they care about what Iowans want, you’ll know how phony it is.
Instead, they should show a well-dressed guy jetting in from Florida carrying a stack of brilliant ideas. That’s who our leaders listen to. And we take the lumps.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Floridians come to Iowa bearing brilliant ideas
The voices of Iowans are not part of the equation
www.thegazette.com
