By Marcus Moore
Paul Bauer is right about one thing: Alaska needs energy and competence. Where I disagree is in the diagnosis of the problem, and who bears responsibility for fixing it.
I am not a 21-year-old activist shouting from the cheap seats, nor am I a 65-year-old gatekeeper guarding institutional memory like a family heirloom. I am 40 years old. I sit squarely in the middle, old enough to have watched multiple political cycles fail, young enough to still feel the consequences coming next.
From this vantage point, what some older leaders interpret as “arrogance” from younger Alaskans often looks like something else entirely: earned skepticism born from exclusion, stagnation, and broken promises.
The Problem Isn’t Age. It’s Access.
Alaska’s political system does not suffer from a lack of respect for elders. It suffers from power never being handed down.
For decades, leadership roles within party politics, especially in Alaska, have been concentrated within tight inner circles. Advancement is less about merit or results and more about proximity to influence, loyalty to donors, and willingness to wait your turn. The problem is that the turn never comes.
If you are 30 or 40 and politically active in Alaska, you already know these truths: You are encouraged to volunteer endlessly. You are told to campaign “for the cause.” You are asked to trust a system that never promotes you into decision-making authority.
This is not humility training. It is containment.
Young Alaskans Aren’t Rejecting Wisdom— They’re Rejecting Stagnation
Younger Alaskans, Zoomers and Millennials alike, are not dismissing experience wholesale. What they are rejecting is a political message and structure that has not meaningfully changed despite decades of failure.
Consider these facts:
- Unaffiliated and independent voters outnumber Republicans and Democrats combined in Alaska by nearly 2:1.
- Youth voter participation remains inconsistent, not because of apathy, but because of deep distrust.
- Alaska continues to lose young professionals, tradespeople, and families due to economic instability, housing costs, and lack of opportunity.
Yet the messaging remains the same. The leadership remains the same. The outcomes remain the same. At some point, skepticism becomes rational.
Gatekeeping Creates the Very “Arrogance” Being Criticized
When younger activists push back sharply, it is often framed as entitlement. But from the inside, it feels like this: “You want our labor, our time, our creativity, our digital skills, but not our ideas, authority, or leadership.”
That breeds frustration. And frustration, when ignored long enough, turns into bluntness. If wisdom is not shared, if mentorship is performative, if authority is hoarded instead of stewarded, then what looks like disrespect is often a response to betrayal.
Alaska Runs on Logistics— But Also on Trust
Paul Bauer is right that Alaska is built on logistics, relationships, and trust. But trust is a two-way contract. You cannot tell younger generations to “earn leadership” while denying them meaningful access to decision-making, transparency in party operations, and a seat at the table where strategy and money move.
Experience is only valuable when it evolves. Otherwise, it becomes inertia.
This Isn’t a Youth Revolt. It’s a Demand for Renewal.
No serious younger Alaskan I know believes memes replace governance. What they believe, correctly, is that governance without accountability is just ritual.
They have watched wars justified on false premises, economic systems rigged against first-time buyers, and institutions promising reform but delivering optics.
So, when they say, “the system is outdated,” they are not rejecting democracy. They are rejecting a closed loop of insiders pretending that continuity equals stability.
The Bridge Goes Both Ways
If Alaska’s older leaders want respect, they must offer something more than lectures on humility.
They must mentor with the intention to replace themselves. They must share power, not just advice. They must accept that legitimacy today is earned through results, not tenure.
The future will not be built by silencing young frustration or by romanticizing past authority. It will be built when experience stops guarding the door and starts opening it. Because the younger generation is not trying to burn Alaska down. They are trying to take it back from systems that no longer serve the people who live here. And if that message feels uncomfortable, it might be because it is overdue.
Im fifty two and would word this the same way. It appears leadership is all about getting a bag and living in the political system as long as possible. The wealth transfer that is coming is likely to end Alaska. Without gen alpha to purchase needed products or just simply not have the numbers… invest in Healthcare. It’s going to get brutal.
Yep.
I would always ask these passionate folks to get off the sidelines. Use the open primary to its fullest. Otherwise you get cookie cutter politicians with the same schpill, the same outcome, and the tired excuses.
For those of you who take time on MRAK to comment…. run! Your party has continuously let you down. Now they are parading Dan around like some gift from heaven. Many of you on here have better common sense regulation ideas and definitely better spending habits than Dan.
Be Brave. Stand up for Alaska.
The Alaskan legislature has to many corrupt, me politicians in Juneau. We can’t trust the word of many of todays politicians, they campaign on one platform and legislate on another. The what’s in it for me. The party leadership has allowed these unethical politicians to succeed.
Zack Fields, Sara Rasmussen, and Kelly Merrick were all pretty young legislators during the year of the Leg Wrestling Championships in the Capitol building.
Move the capitol to Anchorage bowl for more accountability to the people and cheaper operating cost.
Set term limits. Politicians work for their own wealth, not their constituents health. Big change needed there.
And the grand finale- get rid of Murkowski. Talk about corruption!
I could not agree more with the writer. I have said for years that we need new leadership at every level of the Republican Party. The Democrats are beating us because they have built a system that works. When I talk to one of the “old” Republican leaders I get, “well, you have to understand.”
I do understand, I am 73 years old and Ihave not been considered old enough or experienced enough to join the club. The result is, we loose.
But. I still do not see the same young adults from 18-35 attending their community councils. Just like the “young” republicans group which 40-something us not young nor young adult. they too been absent from their community councils.
If the Young truly want to be heard and taken seriously then they need to be at the councils and sitting as officers presiding over councils just as the Republicans and conservatives and Christian groups need to be there.
The reason Alaska maintains the old guard leaders is because they are not challenged. I for one will like to see the Hickle family shoved out from any Republican leadership influence because new members stepped up and replaced them.
However power corrupts people not rooted on God’s Word and the very new leaders will do everything in their power to promote close friends and family members just to keep the new guard in power.
I can appreciate the author’s frustration, but must strongly disagree with his assessment:
IF you bother to get involved, the Republican Party will listen – I was very surprised when they welcomed my involvement. And as I found, they might not agree with everything you want – but they WILL listen and welcome you. You will learn from them and they will learn from you, If you do not get involved, you will have no influence at all. Younger generations, please get involved – we need your energy and enthusiasm, your ideals and ideas. Any Boomer who refuses to welcome you is a fool who will fail bigly.
The GOP has nothing to offer White people.