The anti-government governor
COMMENTARY
“There are certain politicians who don’t believe government works and they run for office so they can be in charge and prove themselves right.” — Bill Maher The history of the United States is marked by periods of progress and regress, of expansion and contraction, of reform and reaction. Since the turn of the 20th century alone, the U.S. has experienced several such cycles: the Robber Barons gave over to the Age of Reform at the turn of the 20th century. The Age of Reform collapsed under the Red Scare and deregulation after World War I, ushering in the laissez- faire capitalist “Gilded Age,” which then collapsed into the Great Depression. The New Deal — inspired by the Great Depression — established the great federalist system that endured for the post-World War II American century until the advent of Ronald Reagan. It was Reagan, after all, who introduced “new federalism” into our political lexicon. The “new federalism” was then sown with the seeds of the anti-government insurgency, which finds its contemporary expression in the right-wing “movement” billionaires, the tea party, Fox News and Donald J. Trump.
The Trump approach to anti-government government is generally attributed to Steve Bannon, a conservative intellectual with a deep admiration for Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary who favored radical institutional deconstruction and political disruption as key to change.
Alaska has its own Trumpian leadership in Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and Dunleavy has his own Bannon-like recluse in former Chief of Staff Tuckerman Babcock. Alaska is a relatively young state and has not had a long history of cycling through periods of reform and reaction like the United States. Consequently, the only progressive fabric against which the Dunleavy administration can react is the Alaska Constitution and the constitutional order that it has established.
I argue that the founders of the state of Alaska established a commonwealth, which operates as a “beneficial trust” for Alaskans. It is unique among the 50 states. The Alaska Constitution speaks of public trust and public interest and is clear that “private” interests are not the primary concern of governance.
Nowhere is the governor’s anti-government government more clear than his continuous assertions that he sees his duty to promote and advocate for the “private sector.”
In this, the Dunleavy administration could not be more at odds with the constitution.
The state’s interest — the interest that the governor is sworn to uphold — is vested in the public interest, not the private. To be clear, this does not prevent public-private partnerships, but it is the duty of the governor to ensure that the outcome of those partnerships, including tax credits, maximizes the public benefit.
The “public duty” of the governor is plainly documented in the state constitution. Article VII, Sections 1, 4 and 5 direct the governor and the Legislature to provide for public schools, public health and public welfare, respectively; Article VIII Sections 1, 2 and 3 makes it the policy of the state to develop its natural resources for public interest, maximum benefit of the people and managed for common use, respectively; and Article IX Section 6 establishes that taxes, revenues, credit and property of the state shall be for public purposes.
The governor is the chief executive of the public estate of Alaskans. The presumption of Alaska’s constitutional framers was that if the public trust is well managed, public equity robust and public services well delivered, then individual Alaskans will be free to prosper through their own enterprise.
Unfortunately, the concept of public equity, public trust and public duty seem to be alien to Gov. Dunleavy. This is stunning, especially considering that the governor’s entire career in Alaska has been in the public sector. He enjoys a retirement under multiple public retirement systems and health care provided under a public trust. He himself benefited from higher education loans and grants, earning a master’s degree at the university his vetoes have crippled in an academic discipline no longer available to students at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
If the Dunleavy administration succeeds in establishing anti-government government in Alaska, expect a network of crony capitalists operating inside a resource colony wrapped in a governmental shell that exists only to ratify the depletion of the commonwealth and the public trust of Alaskans.
Elstun W. Lauesen is a retired development finance specialist, a certified economic development finance professional with a 40-year career in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Lauesen lives in Spenard with his wife Harriet Drummond. Among other activities, he serves as the communication chairman of the Progressive Caucus of the Alaska Democratic Party.
