Alaska Candidate: "I'd Probably Invade ANWR" For Oil and "Martyrdom"
In the Land of the Midnight Sun, the last frontier, the land of Sarah Palin, it's hard to distinguish oneself from the crowd of conservative anti-government candidates for government office. But Dan Sullivan has a plan: Take over federal parklands, drill for oil, and maybe get heroically shot.
Sullivan, who's running for lieutenant governor of America's biggest state, thinks it's unfair that Cliven Bundy gets to have all that yee-haw fun by himself down in the lower 48, according to KRBD (emphasis added):
And as a fourth-generation Alaskan, Sullivan said he'd be an enthusiastic ambassador for the state. Part of that would be fighting for Alaska's state rights. He said that includes getting the 20 million acres that's still owed to the state from the federal government, and controlling the state's resources.
"One of the things I've suggested, too, is that if I was governor today, I'd probably invade ANWR," he said. "What are they going to do, shoot you? Well, they might. But martyrdom goes a long way sometimes."
He was referring to the longstanding debate over whether to allow oil exploration in parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It's an ironclad argument, really. The federal government, which bought Alaska from Russia (bypassing those pesky natives), and helped build the infrastructure that makes Alaska's profitable oil trade possible—which ultimately makes individual Alaskans' annual state dividend checks possible—owes Alaskans, dammit. And that's why Alaskans need to take all those pristine national parks and wildlife refuges back, like with force, and maybe get shot along the way, but hey, martyrdom in the Alaskan cause is great, just great.
