Many years ago, I spent several weeks in Alaska meeting people and traveling about. If you have been up there, you know that it is a different place from down here even though most of the residents migrated from other states. They frequently speak disparagingly of the \u201clower forty-eight\u201d states. People here, somehow, don\u2019t measure up to the rough and ready independence of Alaskans.<\/p>\n
As I watched the election returns last night I kept thinking about Alaska. Many there considered themselves libertarians, Republicans or conservatives. The Alaskans I met made a sport of railing against government at every level. These same people were eager and delighted to receive the annual stipend from oil revenues provided by the state and happy to accept pork barrel money from Washington. No contradiction there.<\/p>\n
Earlier last evening, I finished reading a wonderful little book entitled Power and Liberty, Constitutionalism in the American Revolution<\/em>. Written by Gordon S. Wood, a leading historian of constitutionalism during the colonial and the early republic, I came away with a strong sense that neither the Founding Fathers, or what the author termed \u201cmiddling\u201d leaders and politicians at the state levels, were strong ideologues. They went along, got along, and, more often than not, came up with compromises and unique solutions to get things done. And, they could be fickle and change their minds.<\/p>\n Last night\u2019s upset in the Virginia governor\u2019s race, for example. was not all that surprising and fit the template of American politics that was first worked out over two hundred years ago. Democrats and Republicans will try to make much of the election outcome as a portent of things to come, but I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath. Recent history has given us George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden as presidents while leadership in congress continues to change as has the makeup of the Supreme Court. Sometimes we just want change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many years ago, I spent several weeks in Alaska meeting people and traveling about. If you have been up there, you know that it is a different place from down here even though most of the residents migrated from other states. They frequently speak disparagingly of the \u201clower forty-eight\u201d states. People here, somehow, don\u2019t measure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n