III.             Two Visions for Alaska

This historical divide still lingers in our state and continues to drive politics in D.C. On one side, you had people arguing that our state could never succeed on its own, and so we would do better continuing as a territory run by an absent federal landlord who would protect us and occasionally give us scraps from the wealth of America’s table to keep us happy or at least mollified.

On the other side, you had people like Bob Bartlett, Wally Hickel, and Ted Stevens who saw such great possibility in our people, and who saw that the key to our future would be to unlock the wealth of Alaska and the private sector economy of our bountiful state, with sustainable economic growth and jobs that we create here. This was supposed to have been the promise of statehood. As Bartlett said, because of statehood, Alaska “is no longer a beggar at the national table.”

Today, elected leaders in Juneau and Washington, D.C. still play tug-of-war with these two very different visions for our state.

There are those who still view the federal government as our wealthy, but distant, and sometimes arrogant, protectorate. In my opinion, this has bred an attitude of defeat in some Alaskans, which has often led to cynicism. If you’re still a beggar, and it takes years or even decades to get the federal government’s permission to build a road, or a mine, or a hydro project, then anything you might try to achieve—big dreams—always seem bound to fail.

Throughout the decades back in D.C., national Democrats and their special interest, far-left environmental allies have not only encouraged this mindset for political gain, but contorted it to keep us locked up as America’s beautiful snow-globe.

This mindset was on full display when President Carter signed ANILCA to lock up more than 100 million acres of our lands, declaring, “Public lands are Alaska’s future.”

It was on full display when President Obama told Alaska, in one of his last acts to illegally—in my view—lock up the entire Alaska outer continental shelf, that we need to “move decisively away from fossil fuels.” The way “to build a strong Arctic economy” in Alaska, he told us, was to rely on things like charity—“philanthropy” in President Obama’s words. More scraps from the federal table!

And, of course, this arrogant federal landlord view of Alaska was on full display and reached its zenith under President Biden with his “Last Frontier Lock-Up”—an unprecedented 70 executive orders and executive actions exclusively focused on Alaska and shutting down our private sector economy, and which did so much to hurt working families. 70. There were going to be more, but we blocked a number of them. 70 executive orders solely focused on our state.

Almost all of this happened despite direct appeals from Alaskans—Democrats, Republicans, most of you; on Willow, all of you—to not undertake such actions against us. This was particularly the case when it came to our Alaska Native community on the North Slope.

Eight times, North Slope leaders from the tribe, ICAS, from ASRC, and the North Slope Borough—now so ably led by your former colleague, Josiah Patkotak—eight times they flew thousands of miles to D.C. to request a meeting Secretary of the Interior Haaland to oppose her lock up of their lands. Eight times, she refused to meet with them.

Talk about arrogant, faraway landlords.

These anti-Alaska actions from the Obama and Biden administrations directly killed—at a minimum—hundreds of good-paying private sector jobs and almost certainly opportunities for thousands more in Alaska.

I hope our kids and grandkids, for their sake, never have to go through this kind of assault on our state ever again. You can tell I feel strongly about this. I know you do too.

But there’s another vision that I believe everybody in this room supports. It’s a vision arising from our frontier heritage—a spirit of strength, invention, energy, and resilience, shaking off the shackles of the past, and building a new world. It’s a spirit of opportunity. It is the spirit of the Last Frontier.

We get it from the Alaska Native people who’ve thrived on this land for thousands of years in some of the harshest conditions in the world.

We get it from the gold miners who traveled North to find their fortune.

We get it from the pioneers who came from thousands of miles away and built new communities.

We get it from our incredible veteran population who defended freedom for America across the globe.

We get it from our construction workers and building trades who have built Alaska man-made marvels, like TAPS.

We get it from our law enforcement officers who’ve brought law and order to a rough and rugged land.

We get it from our fishermen on dangerous seas.

We get it from so many Alaskans in this room and across our state who still have that frontier spirit, and who reject begging at the national table; who see Alaskan private sector-led growth, unleashing wealth and the bounty of our state, and the creation of good-paying jobs and the promise of opportunity for our kids and grandkids.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

  address, Alaska, legislature, senator, sullivan