Much like Alaskan statewide avalanche information, Alaskan politics are an abject failure. We have an Outside funded, Koch brothers puppet, Trump-wannabe governor that is waging an all-out assault on our young state’s public institutions (from the university and public K-12 education, to the old folks home, to the ferry system). Given how young our state is, and considering that there are likely many Alaskans still alive today that helped establish and build our state’s public institutions, I can imagine that the governor’s actions have been heart-wrenching for these pioneering civil servants (witnessing Dunleavy’s attempts to destroy institutions for social welfare that they spent their lives building).
Looking deeper, I see the Koch brothers’ political project in Alaska (and backing of Dunleavy as governor) as an experiment. They are using our isolated, sparsely populated, and vulnerable state as an experiment for a right-wing project they wish to roll out nationwide (likely moving to the Lower 48 from Alaska initially via other vulnerable, sparsely populated red states like Wyoming). This right-wing project is the annihilation of all that is public, and implementation of total privatization. This public decimation, radical privatization project’s chief (albeit covert) aim is to remove (and eventually completely eliminate) any burden on the propertied and wealthy ruling class to support the rest of society via taxation. It is an extension of Trump’s radical “tax reform” that benefits the 1%, provides for an expansion of corporate welfare programs, but seeks to eliminate social and public welfare programs.
It’s interesting to consider the governor and Koch brothers’ initial shock-and-awe assault on our state’s public university system. The public university is the number one target of a right-wing public decimation project, especially when considering that more education typically leads to more progressive thinking. Regardless of the political leanings of what more education produces, higher education at least produces more nuanced and complex thinkers capable of better understanding the implications of politics. The radical right-wing project is contingent upon a dumbed-down and distracted populace that is either uninterested in or unable to comprehend the implications of politics and current affairs. This is because the Right does not value equitable democracy (which is contingent upon a well-educated, knowledgable, critically-thinking, and engaged citizenry, that is a product of high-quality public education).
I think it’s important to state here, what I see as the fundamental difference between Left and Right on the political spectrum. The Left believes society has a responsibility to provide for the wellbeing of ALL of its members; the Right does not. The Right adheres to a survival of the fittest, every MAN for himself philosophy (as the chauvinistic and misogynistic Right is beholden to PATRIARCHY and HIERARCHY, to the detriment of the wholesome cosmic balance between yin and yang). There are right-wing women, but there are no right-wing feminists; it’s impossible to reconcile any form of feminism with right-wing political and social philosophy.
Given the interconnectedness of humanity and the planet considering technology, the global economy, and the burgeoning of our species’ transnational scientific understanding; the Millennial Left now understands humanity’s new paradigm as an interconnected planetary society which has a responsibility to not only provide for the welfare of all human beings but to provide for the welfare of the biosphere as a whole. Given the state of the biosphere considering anthropogenic climate change and the Anthropocene extinction that is currently underway, the Millennial Left’s political philosophy is the only political philosophy capable of saving our species from either total destruction at worst or planetary dystopia at least.
Nowhere else on the planet is the success of Millennial Left as important as in the United States of America. While I hope Americans will be skeptical and conscious of the concept of “American Exceptionalism” in order to avoid its pitfalls, I think any objective assessment of history evidences the reality of American Exceptionalism.
We are a nation of many flaws, with an atrocious history that has yet to undergo the requisite truth and reconciliation process mandatory for sociocultural healing. We are a nation whose growth and development was based on slavery and genocide. Reparations need to be paid, and treaties need to be acknowledged. Fortunately, this can still happen. The richest and most powerful entity this planet has ever known (the political entity known as the USA), can pay reparations and make right treaties with First Nations for the sake of Eros just as it currently wastes immeasurable money and resources on weapons of mass destruction for the sake of Thanatos (while enriching the 1% beyond imagination).
While we have many flaws, evidencing the dark side of American Exceptionalism, we have many beautiful qualities as well. These are why Higher Powers have made the USA exceptional: the most powerful nation on the planet since the second world war and the planet’s most promising beacon of freedom and democracy. As Lincoln stated at Gettysburg, during a period of time in which white men were paying a debt in blood for the belligerent racism in the form of African slavery they allowed to exist for far too long, the USA is the primary nation in this world dedicated “to the proposition that all [wo]men are created equal” and “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”
It’s with this that I call on all decent Americans, especially the youth that will inherit the Earth and provide for the continuation of the project known as humanity, to accept their responsibility to create change and revolutionarily reform our society and culture at this most timely hour.
There is a bright side to the Trump-Dumleavy movement. It has opened the door for outside-the-box, anti-Establishment, anti-status-quo, politics on both the Right and Left. If Hillary had won in 2016 the box would not have been busted open, and the Establishment would still rule with a level of entrenchment far less susceptible to the necessary level of disruption our culture, society, and world needs. Plus, as Trump is nothing more than a backlash against Obama from the deep racism and savage capitalism still festering in our nation’s soul, the right-wing backlash following a Hillary presidency may have been even worse than Trump 1.0.
In 2020, we have the opportunity to elect a progressive president like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. We have an opportunity to elect representatives that will start the process of rebuilding the decimated public sphere with debt-free higher education (that will provide our nation with the knowledgable and critically-thinking citizenry that is necessary for a well-functioning democracy), student loan forgiveness (that will provide an economic stimulus by freeing a generation of youth shackled with predatory debt to become homeowners and start families), Medicare for All (that will provide for a healthy populace that enjoys not-for-profit healthcare as a human right like the rest of the developed world’s citizens), and a Green New Deal (that will provide for a reorientation of the economy, subsidization projects, and universal employment efforts on a scale necessary to address the magnitude of the planetary climate change crisis).
To conclude this political manifesto, let’s bring it back to Alaska. The Alaskan Democratic Party has proved to be as much a failure as the Alaskan GOP. Is Mark Begich the best we can do for governor? He is not a representative of Alaskan values and lifestyles, and a politician that is not stands no chance of beating even a relative failure (in all his other career pursuits) from Scranton, PA like Mike Dunleavy.
While Dunleavy dodged most debate opportunities with Begich, I surely remember one of the debate challenges he did accept. When it came to public education, which Begich presented himself as a big proponent of, Dunleavy pointed out that Begich had his child educated at a private school. WTF. Begich and the Alaska Democratic Party Establishment’s spineless liberal hypocrisy could not compete with Dunleavy and the Koch brothers primal appeal to humanity’s most base instincts: a big chunk of money via an un-garnished PFD and no new taxes.
Finally, let’s consider the Alaskan Democratic Party Establishment’s unforgivable behavior during the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary. Despite Bernie Sanders’ landslide victory (80% vs. Hillary’s 20%) in the caucus, the party Establishment did not clearly support him. That’s not democratic.
Moving forward, we do have a budget crisis. What do we need to do to remain fiscally solvent as a state? Geopolitically, Alaska is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on the planet – as much in the sense of its ecological integrity as in its vast natural resources and potential for producing renewable energy. There is going to be BIG investment in Alaska, especially in the future (remember “North to the future”), it’s just a matter of whether or not We the People of the Great State of Alaska give it away to manipulative capitalists for far less than it’s worth, or we demand appropriate compensation for any wealth extracted from The Greatland.
We don’t need right-wing austerity measures a la Koch brothers’ puppet policies. We need to appropriately tax and regulate the resource extractors and big businesses that operate in our immeasurably resource rich state. If the existing resource extractors and big businesses aren’t willing to pay what we demand, others will, and we can welcome a new wave of investment from more socially and environmentally responsible business and resources extraction entities.
When it comes to the budget crisis, most of what I hear from spineless and weak-willed Alaskan liberals is focused on further garnishment of, or giving up, the PFD to cover state expenditures. Some even propose measures like a statewide sales tax. Both are unnecessary, and have much more of a negative impact on rural and working-class Alaskans. Given Republicans’ stance against more and/or higher taxes and any compromise of the PFD, they will continue to defeat Alaska Democratic Party Establishment liberals quite handily.
Given my frustration with the Alaskan Democratic Party and its bourgeois liberals, I think it’s very important to distinguish between weak-willed, flaccid-spined, neoliberal capitalists and the libertarian socialism Alaska needs. Alaska is unconventional, with a citizenry more open to outside-the-box and creative thinking than any other state in the union. We can do better than Democrats and Republicans. We need visionary and independent political representatives who are beholden to nothing other than the people and places that make this The Greatland.
On to the trip report:
The Fist Range is a distinct sub-range of the Central Chugach Mountains between the human settlements of Valdez and Chitina. It is so named given its resemblance to a raised fist, which all progressive Americans should be raising to defeat both Trumpism and the bourgeois Democratic Establishment (#FeelTheBern). Its distinct border is formed by the Copper River to the north and east, Tiekel River to the south and west, and the Tonsina River to the northwest. While I’m currently aware of only very limited alpine access by way of any sort of trail, there is a typically very wet and rooty ATV to rough foot trail in the vicinity of Ernestine and Mosquito creeks that leaves from a trailhead just off the Richardson Highway. This trail provides an easement to a vast alpine area with unlimited opportunities for exceptional trekking and peakbagging. However, all routes east of tarn 3680 require steep snow climbing and/or exposed 3rd-4th class scrambling. That said, once beyond this crux of high alpine access travel options ease dramatically.
Tarn 3680 at the end of the “trail”:
For this trip, I ascended the steep northerly couloir to snowfield that leads to a 6100′ peak south of the pass that is about a mile east of tarn 3680. From this summit, I followed the ridge southeast over several minor peaks to the most prominent summit of the ridgeline south of the pass known as Wolfsbane Peak. From Wolfsbane I retraced steps back to the north for a short distance, descending to a large saddle from which I headed east towards the large alpine lake at 3820′.
Wolfsbane from the first summit:
Looking west toward the Richardson Highway from the first summit:
Looking north from the first summit:
Looking northeast from the first summit (Chitina in this direction):
Looking east from the first summit:
Looking southeast from the first summit:
Looking north from the Wolfsbane summit:
Looking east from Wolfsbane summit:
From the shores of the beautiful alpine lake at 3820′, I headed north and then west back through a tarn-studded landscape full of veinous streams toward the pass just east of tarn 3680′ (that the trail from the road leads to). Terrain in this area provides some of the best Alaskan backcountry trekking I have ever experienced. It is high-quality terrain superior for trekking and camping that is much less crowded, way cheaper and easier to access, and with a much more reasonable carbon footprint than remote fly-in alpine areas in National Parks like Wrangell-St. Elias, Lake Clark, and Gates of the Arctic. There is abundant clean water everywhere, as well as endless opportunities for trekking and peakbagging.
From the pass, I descended what could be considered difficult 3rd class or easy 4th class terrain back to tarn 3680′ and the rough foot trail. Unfortunately, in my haste I didn’t bother checking the GPS track at a crucial intersection where a spider web of rough hunting and game trails meet. Quickly realizing I did not go the right way at this intersection, I spent some time trying to get back on track. But, alas, the maze was too complex and being only a quarter-mile from the road I decided to punch straight through the brush. This turned into a properly savage undertaking as much of the quarter-mile was spent wading thigh to waist deep through brushy wetland and beaver ponds.
