OPINION: Lessons from Don Young

In today’s warped environment of performative politics, we can look back and learn a lot from the late, great “Congressman for All Alaska,” Don Young. The media’s recent feeding frenzy is just one symptom of a broken political system that prioritizes flash over substance. Don Young both warned about the dangers of performative politics and remained resolute in doing his actual job, all the way up to the day he passed away. Today, we all have a stake in those elected officials who are committed to the incredibly important work of public policy.

Let’s use the national media’s piranha-like attack on President Joe Biden as an object lesson. For anyone who had the good fortune of being untethered from their phone for the last three weeks, a recap is in order: A sexual abuser and convicted felon, former President Donald Trump, showed up at a presidential debate and lied blithely for the duration of the event. For the national media (and their fellow neurotic hand-wringers among Hollywood elites), Trump scored well. President Joe Biden, who has delivered the most effective, bipartisan presidential administration in the last half-century, didn’t meet with Hollywood approval. News flash: Biden and Trump are not competing to be captains of the Yale debate team, nor to debut as TikTok personalities. The job of being president has real impacts on real people, far beyond the X.com bubble of media and partisan elites. In what universe would the rhetoric of two old men mean more than their actual records, since both of them have been around and we can assess what they’ve actually done?

When Joe Biden was elected in 2020, he inherited a national economic crisis and international security crisis strikingly similar to the early days of the Depression and rise of the Nazis. In the 1930s, radio personality Charles Coughlin and famed airman Charles Lindbergh were acting as fascists’ defenders by opposing intervention to stop Hitler. In the 2020s, Russia-aligned partisans in the far-right blogosphere, Fox News, and MAGA Republicans aligned in opposition to Biden’s attempt to contain Russia. Remarkably, Biden and other national security supporters have substantially prevailed, raising more NATO funds to build defenses while maintaining Western unity and investment in support of Ukraine. Many traditional Republicans, i.e. people who have the courage to act based on conscience, were at the forefront in support of Ukraine, from our Alaska senators to former Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Biden also inherited the most challenging economic landscape since the Great Depression. Sen. McConnell and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had made the wise decision to invest massive sums of federal dollars in economic stabilization, vindicating yet again the wisdom of Keynesian economics. Biden’s challenge was to turn from short-term stimulus to long-term rebuilding of America’s infrastructure and industrial capacity. Credit both to him and to bipartisan members of Congress for passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, which together represent the most important infrastructure and national security investments since the establishment of the interstate highway system and buildout of our Cold War defense infrastructure.

Perhaps most remarkably, Biden and Congress’ economic policies have done two things that are unprecedented in the modern era: raise real wages of the lower and middle classes while making large reductions in carbon emissions, successfully decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas pollution. In contrast, of course, Trump spent his presidency undermining NATO and, in the style of corrupt despots, directing federal agencies to purchase hotel room blocks from his own hotels.

The national media loved to mock Don Young for his political incorrectness, just as they delighted in trashing Ted Stevens for (god forbid) using a metaphor to describe the internet. Don Young represented Alaska for 49 years in the House and became its most senior member. He lived to be 89 years old, and I would argue the last four years of his life would be the most consequential for our state and for our United States.

When a mob of terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol and tried to overturn the 2020 election, Don Young had the courage to vote to certify the election for Joe Biden — and all Alaskans know Biden was not Young’s choice for president. Yet Don Young believed in America, believed in democracy and, unlike so many of his colleagues, had the courage and integrity to put the nation ahead of partisanship. After that election, Don Young worked closely with Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. As he described to state legislators in a hearing that I chaired, Don Young delivered 10 Republican votes for that bill, which was the only reason then-Speaker Pelosi could bring it to the floor and pass it on to President Biden.

Back in the early 1990s, Don Young warned that introducing live television to the House floor would degrade politics, causing representatives to pander on camera rather than meaningfully debate with their colleagues. While the functionality of the institution collapsed around him over the next 30 years, Don Young soldiered on, delivering on a wide range of issues from defending the postal service to investing in our infrastructure to preserving American democracy. And yes, Don Young became quite old in the process, and put every ounce of accumulated wisdom to work on behalf of Alaskans. I think the lessons from Don Young are very clear, and even if the national media are hopelessly feckless, we as Alaskans can learn from them: Respect our elders. Value nation above party and results above performance.

Rep. Zack Fields represents Downtown Anchorage and surrounding neighborhoods in the Alaska House of Representatives.

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