Alaska News

Alaska Senate campaigns sound like children, so where are the parents?

Anyone who has been watching Alaska TV for the past month might by now believe the race for the state's U.S. Senate seat is a contest between the devil and a guy with two horns, a spear and a tail. Or at least that's the way it looks if you are a non-partisan. Things are simpler if you're a card-carrying conservative or liberal. Then it's a lot more black and white. Then there's a good guy, and there's a bad guy.

Which guy -- Democrat incumbent Mark Begich or Republican challenger Dan Sullivan -- gets to be the good guy simply depends on which side of Alaska's vast partisan divide you stand.

The reality, of course, is that Begich and Sullivan aren't all that much different, and neither of them -- despite what you have been seeing on TV, where they've spent millions of dollars trashing each other -- is evil personified.

They are both generally reasonable men. They love their families. They care about the country. They are fundamentally decent. Sullivan has a certain sense of entitlement because he comes from money. Begich has a certain sense of entitlement because he comes from a political family. They have different political beliefs in a number of areas, but at the end of the day both are more political pragmatists than political idealists.

And they both should be ashamed of themselves and their campaigns for the political gutter in which their Senate race has spent its time rolling.

That each of these men wants to win the Senate seat is understandable. That negative campaigns work in the America of today is a sad reality.

But at some point it becomes incumbent on the political candidates to rise above the negativity in the recognition that everyone has to live together after the election, and in acceptance of the fact the U.S. has fundamental problems that must be solved in the years ahead, problems which will take a citizenry more willing to work together than it is today.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sullivan and Begich themselves are big boys who will be able to shake hands and put all of the name calling behind when this is over. They understand U.S. politics has become football, American style: You go out on the field, pound the other guy, trash talk him at will, and shake hands when it's over.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work quite the same way for the fans. Those who back National Football League teams have often been described as "rabid." They're not a hand-shaking bunch, and in politics these days it is much the same.

Alaska is full of people who pour their hearts, souls and personal beliefs into candidates they are convinced share their values even if the reality is far more nuanced. Among these people, the election isn't just a vote to determine which path the majority of people think the democracy should tread.

No, it's a war.

Remember the words of Alaska's most famous partisan: "Don't retreat! Reload!"

The art of compromise has been lost to that battle cry. Because of a national deluge of name-calling competitions of the sort in which Begich and Sullivan have engaged, Americans don't want to shake hands, accept a majority vote and move forward. Whipped into a mob frenzy, they predictably want to act like a mob -- win or lose.

The winners expect their candidate to deliver what they thought was promised no matter how unreasonable or nonsensical. God forbid the beating the winner might take if he suggests compromise.

And the loser? Well, the loser and his mob are going nowhere quietly. Losing is just an excuse to re-arm for an ever more bitter battle.

Anyone wondering why so much of government these days is stuck in gridlock, here's the answer: It's the politicians, and it's us.

We've all somehow ended up in self-perpetuating name-calling competition that makes reasonable compromises darn near impossible. It's like watching children fight.

"You're ugly." "No, you're ugly." "No, you're ugly."

Unfortunately there have been no parents around to break this one up. And both children seem to think acting like this is a winning strategy. Where'd they get that idea?

Craig Medred is a columnist and reporter for Alaska Dispatch News.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

ADVERTISEMENT