Alaska Dispatch News columnist Steve Haycox made a valiant attempt in a May 6 commentary in ADN to convince readers they'd be better off with anyone but Donald Trump as president. His unsupported claims about racism and vague notions of people upset with Republican policies trip him up from the get-go.
That doesn't stop him, however. He dredges up the tired old litany of the disappearing middle class, ignoring that, according to Pew Research, average hourly wages for most workers are about the same as they were in the 1960s, when adjusted for inflation.
Populist liberals have been busy for several years trying to redefine what it means to be middle class. The term itself is malleable, changing as economists and social scientists tweak their biases. Politicians can use this mythology to their advantage, as President Barack Obama has done for years with his oft-repeated phrase, "income inequality."
Haycox neglects to mention major social influences that contribute to a possibly temporary lower middle class, such as the tripling of the percentage of single-parent households since the 1960s, and the surge of immigration. Breakdown of the traditional family has been one of the most significant contributors to diminished financial wealth.
Add the fact that nearly 4 percent of Americans are here illegally, and they often occupy the lower rungs of the upward-mobility ladder.
And another reason the middle class seems smaller is because others are moving into the upper-class tier. The transfer of wealth from the greatest generation to the baby boomers has had a lot to do with that. It's complicated, to be sure, which is why the left finds it easier to drive a big wedge with the false notion of an endangered middle class.
Haycox then posits Trump is a credible and serious danger to civil stability.
But is he? No. Our country is much stronger than the fear-mongering Haycox perpetuates.
But we Americans do have valid concerns. One of those concerns has been spoken to plainly by Trump, and that is uncontrolled immigration.
America gets that it's a threat. Perhaps we in Alaska do not see it as starkly, but others do. In order for a nation to adapt peacefully to globalization, its people need reassurance their government is here to protect them first. Americans believe Americans should be the foremost concern of their leaders. This is not an irrational expectation.
If immigration was what captured the attention of so many Americans who were weighing the 17 choices on the Republican side, then terrorism was a concern not far behind. We have watched terror take its toll on our freedoms here at home, and we've seen Europe curl into itself as terrorism seeps across their borderless lands.
Haycox supposes what a Trump presidency might mean for Alaska, and he imagines the worst: He'd strip us of federal funds. He would ignore Natives. Heavens, according to Haycox, Trump doesn't know what the Native American Rights Fund is. Haycox imagines Trump would attack 8(a) contracts and close our military bases.
This is a boatload of imagining with not a shred of evidence.
Trump is an unorthodox candidate, to be sure. In an age of disruptive technologies and innovations, he's the most disruptive political figure of our time. He's smashed the box that the political chattering class would put him in. Trump has had no ground game, faces a hostile media, and yet has prevailed time and again with Americans on the right and the left. This is a threat to the political status quo, but not to the democracy itself.
So all Haycox has left is he'd be bad for Alaska because Haycox says so.
That's not good enough. For a state that embraces unorthodox candidates with a larger-than-life personality -- the Hickel, the Hammond, the Palin, or the Walker -- Alaskans do not fear Trump the Personality.
What they will weigh in November is whether Alaska will fare better with President Hillary Clinton or President Trump.
Clinton, we know, is as popular in Alaska as a case of swine flu, winning only 16 percent of the Democrats' caucus vote in March. She was crushed by Sanders' 81 percent sweep.
Alaskans of all political stripes have no use for the candidate who says she'll shut down oil exploration offshore and in ANWR. Plus, she'd probably enact gun control by executive order faster than a New York minute.
Many voters will take their chances with Trump rather than risk it all with Clinton.
Suzanne Downing is communications director for the Alaska Republican Party.
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@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.