Sarah Palin: Alaskan secessionist?

3 Updates

This Youtube video is from the website of the Alaska Independence Party. Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin* (see update) and her husband were apparently members of the party from 1994-95. She's no Abraham Lincoln.



Sarah Palin's past association with such a group should surprise nobody. Palin puts development before the environment. On one policy issue after another, Palin has taken the position that the 500,000 residents of Alaska should get to exploit -- for themselves -- the state's vast natural resources.

But the great Alaska wilderness belongs to all 300 million Americans and, of course, to the Eskimo.

Update: According to Ezra Klein "Turns out that the Alaskan Independence Party is also the Alaskan affiliate of the American Constitution Party, which is basically a third party that demands the institution of a Christian theocracy." Andrew Sullivan thinks that makes sense; the blogger refers to political statements by Palin in which she has evoked "the will of God." More about Palin's Crusader tenancies here.

Update 2: Sarah Palin's husband was registered member of the AIP until 2002, when Sarah ran for the Governor's office. The founder of the AIP, Vogler, once professed "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." In same interview Vogler talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

*Update 3: NY Times reports "The chairwoman of an Alaskan political party that advocates a vote on the state’s succession from the union said Tuesday that she had been mistaken when she said Gov. Sarah Palin was a member of the group. . . . After checking the party’s archives, Ms. Clark said that she could find no documentation that Governor Palin had been a member of the party. She said Ms. Palin attended the party’s 1994 and 2006 conventions and provided a video-taped address as governor to the 2008 convention. Ms. Clark said that Ms. Palin’s husband, Todd, was a former member of the party."