In this Age of Trumpism massive divisions afflict the nation, even divisions that suddenly arise from nowhere and for no good reason at all. Alaska is no exception to the trend.
Take the career of Peter Mlynarik. Peter is the Chief of the Soldotna Police Department. Until last week he was also the Chairman of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board. However, Peter suddenly resigned as chairman with no replacement lined up. It seemed a bit of a panicked move by the police chief, coming only one day after it became known that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had repealed the Obama DOJ policy that has allowed commercial and medical cannabis to flourish legally for the past five years. No more.
So, Chief Mlynarik promptly decided he would not defy the Feds by being directly involved in managing the cannabis business and therefore being a top drug lord gangster, federally speaking that is. His State job was obviously and alarmingly too risky for him now from a criminal liability point-of-view.
Now, if the chairman jumps ship first thing alone for fear of felony prosecution by the Feds, what does that do for morale on the board? The chief’s fellow board members have now been formally told, in a way, their official state activities are, in fact, given the new DOJ policy, a string of federal felonies with long prison sentences applying for each one.
So, what if the Alaska control board effectively goes on strike now refusing to have any further participation in the cannabis trade? What if the remaining brave souls on the board are directly threatened by the feds for doing their state job? Now this is a quite unusual path to State deregulation, but classic Trumpism, chaos and breakdown.
Will the state of Alaska that authorized and taxed cannabis growers and retailers do anything to help them when the feds arrest them by the dozens? What could the state do anyway? Oops, sorry about that you naïve Alaskans!
Trump and his Alabama AG certainly know how to explode tyranny among the “law-abiding.” This whopper is over a harmless plant proven to benefit millions and millions of its users. Cannabis has never killed anyone, unlike Prohibition laws.
But this is just the beginning by our crusading AG.
The Anchorage and Homer mayors, city councils and police chiefs and some Alaska state legislators could find themselves in federal prison, along with the cannabis control board members. Their crime? Conspiring to establish sanctuary locales for illegal aliens by refusing to help the feds round them up for deportation. Could the defiance of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution be more clear than here? Prison beckons.
On the AG’s horizon too? Cracking down on states that refuse to dehumanize welfare aid recipients thereby defying new HHS regulations. Warehousing, drug testing and search raids of the poor are just the beginning of the Trumpism to be enforced by Alaska.
The fine print attached to the federal money always says the signer is going to jail. Now they are about to. This AG is the real thing. When progressive Alaska bureaucrats are behind bars maybe that stubborn Alaska streak will finally submerge.
Each of these sudden conflicts flow from Washington DC as it reasserts its authority over all things within the U.S., living or dead. Federalism in the United States used to be a balancing formula, one that always has tilted more and more in favor of federal power. Now the end-game has been reached. The Trump Kraken is threatening the nation in every way it can demanding total power.
Will Alaska leaders stand up for the sovereignty of the people of Alaska against this counter-revolution from the Trump administration? Will Alaska defend its liberties in ways beyond going to federal court and losing?
Or, will Alaska revert to the role of bound-servant to the federal Leviathan, so addicted to federal welfarism that we serve Trump in all ways for fear of his Kraken?
Ask your federal senators and congressman for the answers. Ask the governor too. He is the person most responsible for preserving the sovereignty of Alaskans.
• Stephen Merrill is an Anchorage attorney and an author on sociology and politics making the case for libertarian government. Follow him on Twitter at StephenMerrill@StephenMerrillAk.
