The enormous amount of money that was poured into our elections by the billionaires in November wasn't only about the national government. They've been far more successful at taking over state legislatures, which does not bode well for their residents.

Ken Quinnell has some disturbing observations about initiatives to privatize everything, kill the Affordable Care Act on a state-by-state basis, destroy public education, undermine prevailing wage laws, destroy unions, and more. Here's just one example:

Public Education (37 states): Education is one of the largest budget items that states deal with and it is a goldmine for private interests looking to profit off of public funding. Proposals that make money for private interests are growing and include charter schools, vouchers, online education and other initiatives that hurt both students and teachers. Example: Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) created a task force to craft a plan toimplement school vouchers.

This is where the real destruction is happening. For 30 years, the right wing has been quietly building a state-by-state network of right wing organizations. Think tanks, right wing press shops, propaganda-spinners and, of course, ALEC are all linked together to destroy public services on a state-by-state basis.

The problem is that they're able to distract everyone from statewide initiatives with the federal nonsense, to the point where no one really pays attention to what's going on until it's quite nearly too late.

Well, not quite no one. The AFL-CIO is paying attention, and they can use your help. You can find out how to get involved here.