In Alaska, a preview of the GOP's future...

[madinmaryland]

Alaska is darker in winter, colder all year and less densely populated than any other state. Alaskans are unique, too: They enjoy a higher level of per capita federal spending than anyone else in the union, as well as a state constitution that they think allows them to defy the Supreme Court. Yet for all of its anomalies - or perhaps because of them - Alaska's current electoral morass might well be a harbinger of the Republican Party's future.

For whatever the reason, the hypocrisy at the heart of the party - and at the heart of American politics - is at its starkest in Alaska. For decades, Alaskans have lived off federal welfare. Taxpayers' money subsidizes everything from Alaska's roads and bridges to its myriad programs for Native Americans. Federal funding accounts for one-third of Alaskan jobs. Nevertheless, Alaskans love to think of themselves as the last frontiersmen, the inhabitants of a land "beyond the horizon of urban clutter," a state with no use for Washington and its wicked ways.

Though they are usually not bothered by this contradiction, in the recent Senate race, Alaska's split personality finally split the Alaskan Republican Party. The party's official candidate, Joe Miller, campaigned as the candidate for the Alaska of would-be rugged individuals. Although endorsed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, Miller proved an exceptionally poor choice for this role. He said all the right things about fiscal insanity, the repeal of Obamacare, lower taxes and slashing welfare spending. But like many of his comrades in arms, he gave no specifics and offered no plan for how to reach fiscal sanity or replace Obamacare. During the campaign, it also emerged that he had once collected farm subsidies; that his wife had once collected unemployment benefits; and that his family had received state health benefits. Perhaps it's just hard for Alaskans to avoid feeding from the federal trough.

The incumbent and write-in candidate, Lisa Murkowski, represented Alaska-as-federally-funded-paradise. The scion of a political family, Murkowski had no need for hypocrisy. "I will not apologize for seeking more funding for Alaska," she declared when re-launching her campaign. She pointed out that her senatorial seniority gives her a higher rank on committees, which dispense money. She talked up her friendship with the late Sen. Ted Stevens, whose ability to send cash to Alaska was legendary.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110804485.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Interesting commentary, and oh so true.

[Winterblues]

1. I would certainly hope Alaska is not an example of the GOPs future

Between Murkowski and Miller, Republicans received 76% of the vote...That number appears to be growing and certainly not shrinking as one would hope.. Juneau however where I live cast more votes for McAdams than either Murkowski or Miller...Some villages in the bush cast their votes 100% for Murkowski.. It is because she said she was in favor of "No-Bid" contracts for Native Corporations from the Federal Government and would fight any attempts to do away with them..Talk about voting against one's interest..:shrug: