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I worry about the next generation
By Deedie Sorensen
Back in the early ‘60s when I was just becoming politically aware, my father told me earnestly that the real difference between U.S. representatives and senators was, “the House members think about the next election, you want senators that think about the next generation.”
My dad grew up on a dryland ranch in central Montana, came to hunt and trap near Lake Iliamna in the late 1930s, was working construction at Dutch Harbor when it was bombed, served in the Navy, returned to Alaska after the war as a union operating engineer and eventually returned to Montana. It was clear to me that he was not talking about the next generation of a state which at that time had barely a half million people altogether.
I am deeply worried about the next generation, not just in Alaska, but nationwide. I am worried about their educational opportunities and their access to quality healthcare. I am concerned about their access to clean water and clean air, their access to affordable housing, their access to a safe and regulated food supply, and their opportunity to live in a nation governed by the rule of law. I worry about what will happen to their privacy rights as they become the first generation to live in a surveillance state. I wonder about their ability to find meaningful jobs that provide them an opportunity to be part of what we used to describe as the middle class. The next generation is in real trouble.
Actually, there are several recent generations that have been systematically dealt successively fewer opportunities. The downward pressure has accelerated in the last 12 years. Sen. Sullivan claims he has done a lot for Alaska. But what has he done for the next generation of Alaskans, the ones that are part of the great outmigration? The young people leaving Alaska need a senator who can talk about how their legislative actions have improved the quality of life for them and all Americans.
In July of 2015, the U.S. Senate was asked to ratify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral comprehensive Iran nuclear agreement that guaranteed international inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities to insure they were not developing weapons; Sen. Sullivan refused to ratify in a partisan decision. That decision allowed Trump to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement early in his first term. A decade later, our younger generation of service members are paying the price for this short-sighted early career decision. More recently, he voted to confirm a weekend infotainment personality with minimal military training to be the Secretary of Defense. He has repeatedly voted to support the “war,” while remaining silent on the continuing appalling disinformation, disenfranchisement and misuse of American military personnel and resources.
The senator voted to confirm Gorsuch, Kavanagh and Barrett to the Supreme Court. This resulted in entire generations of younger women having less bodily autonomy, fewer healthcare rights and more dangerous pregnancies than their mothers and grandmothers. While women in Alaska are protected by our state constitution, many women across America have been sorely harmed.
The next generation has been damaged by virtually all the Trump appointees that Sullivan has voted to confirm and who have been tasked with dismantling important government agencies and deregulating programs designed to protect air and water quality, scientific research, healthcare policy, human trafficking, data privacy, monopolistic business practices, civil rights, education opportunity, financial institutions, veterans affairs, national parks and public lands, and the pending apocalypse of unregulated AI. We can add Sullivan’s votes to cut financial support for the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition benefits in order to provide significant tax cuts for the richest of the rich. With people like Sullivan in office, many, if not most, in the next generation really don’t have a chance.
Large states with small populations are particularly vulnerable to the influences of both big and dark money. Clearly, these interests are reaping considerable economic benefits from the current political status quo. Their media messages want us to believe that Dan is great and Mary is an imminent threat to this economic golden age we are all currently experiencing. I have recently had to extrapolate Dan’s possible future actions from a barrage of negative ads against his opponent. If Dan Sullivan is unemployed in February ’27, he would never be a lobbyist. While it is common and legal, it is profoundly offensive. Regardless of the legal use of his leftover campaign funds, the ads imply that he would never make any personal use of them. So what is left? Will he dedicate every dime to charity? Recently, I am frequently advised that women who express emotions in the workplace are mean or unstable. In contrast, men who boil over in a high-pressure situation are fighters, driven and passionate in their pursuit of success. The double standard is tiresome.
I can’t pretend to see the future, but I am supporting Mary Peltola because I believe she will think about the next generation. I believe Mary will think about the impact of her actions and votes on the lives of constituents, the real people she represents. Mary understands that the responsibility of being a United States senator is both daunting and humbling. She has proven that she is not a mindless partisan; she is independent and understands that legislation with toxic additions or amendments have toxic consequences and cannot be supported. I might not agree with her every decision, but I am confident she will make those decisions based on serious research, debate, and deliberation — and I am confident in her support for the interests of actual people. I am also confident that if elected she will return to Alaska on a regular basis to meet with and speak to her constituents. She actually lives here.
• Deedie Sorensen is a 45-year Alaska resident, retired elementary and special education teacher, past school board member, and past school board president living in Juneau.
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