For years, conservatives in Alaska have been fed the same tired line: “Stop being divisive. Just get along. Do not rock the boat.”
But let us stop pretending this is about unity.
Unity is not the problem, silence is. And silence is exactly what the establishment demands while they maneuver, manipulate, and consolidate power behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, Alaska drifts deeper into a purplish haze. Not because of the grassroots, but because the people who claim to be in charge keep mistaking “quiet” for “leadership.”
Let us call this moment what it is: a reckoning.
Alaska is not confused. Not even a little. Over 55% of Alaskans voted for Donald J. Trump… twice.
That is not a subtle message. That is a mandate for America First, energy independence, the right to develop our own resources, law and order, strong borders, a fighting, unapologetic approach to government.
Now, with a president who is willing, finally willing, to put Alaska back on the map, reverse Biden’s sabotage, and uncork our energy dominance again, our state is being handed a golden opportunity on a silver platter.
And the very people who should be stepping up are instead whispering, hesitating, calculating, or waiting for approval from the same old power-brokers Trump already exposed.
We did not fight for an America First president just so Alaska’s Republicans could act like they’re auditioning for MSNBC.
This is political malpractice. And it’s costing us everything.
Let us go back to the Senate replacement vote, the one certain individuals are now strutting around bragging about, as if the process was noble, steady, and destined for success.
It was not.
Here is the truth, the truth they hope fades from memory: This vote could have collapsed under establishment scheming: Phone calls. Pressure campaigns. Side deals. Quiet pushes toward “insider-approved” picks.
The only reason the process in the Senate did not blow up was because others, grass root GOP District leaders with spines, stepped in, people who refused to be intimidated, refused to shut up, and refused to let the backdoor-picked outcome sail through.
The ones polishing their halos today? They did not save the process. They almost detonated it.
This was not unity. This was not leadership. This was hubris at its finest, and they are hoping you forget it.
While the Senate drama brewed, the House quietly underwent its own political contortion.
A group of Republicans, the ones who brand themselves as protectors of civility and decorum, (you know, the ones we’re not supposed to talk about publicly,) well, they locked arms to create a new “Unity Musk Ox Coalition.”
Let us be honest: This was not about principles. It was not about ideology. It was about securing seats, influence, and pre-negotiated paths to future power.
These same “unity saints” have issued threats to conservative leaders, bartered committee positions like poker chips, and warned other elected members that if they did not stop calling out bad behavior, they’d get their wings clipped in Juneau.
Meanwhile?
Some of these moral-high-ground icons have personal entanglements swirling around them that would end careers in any other state house and would make the grassroots toes curl.
And these are the people lecturing the grassroots about unity? Please.
And now, let us talk about a dynamic inside the Alaska GOP that everyone sees but few dare name publicly: The mean-girls-and-old-biddies club.
These are the individuals the establishment pushes to the front, not because they’re strategic thinkers, not because they take risks, not because they’re fighters, but because they’re dependable yes-women.
They do not lead. They echo.
They do not challenge. They nod.
They do not take bold stands. They wait to be told what to think.
They cry over anyone that sees the forest for the trees and calls a spade a spade.
They wrung their hands and doubted whether our lone congressman could win, while others actually stepped up, endorsed him, fought for him, and moved the needle.
But who got trotted out later as if they had been warriors the whole time? The yes-ok club. The event planners. The safe personalities. The ones who mistake proximity to power for actual influence.
They love nepotism and conflicts of interest. Do not ever question it.
Hosting luncheons does not make you a leader. Taking pictures with elected officials does not make you a fighter. Being obedient to the party machine does not make you a strategist.
And Alaska cannot afford leadership that folds like a lawn chair every time the establishment frowns.
We need people with spines, not people with social calendars.
And of course, the moment anyone in the grassroots speaks truth plainly, the establishment retreats to their security blanket:
“You must be FACL.” (Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership).
No… what we are is honest. What we are is awake. What we are is unafraid.
The irony? The same people throwing the accusation using the very tactics they pretend to despise:
Whisper campaigns. Retaliation. Block-listing. Narrative rewrites. Punishing anyone who steps out of line.
They are not the adults in the room. They are the reason adults must walk into the room.
Right now, not next year, not after the primary, not after some consultant signs off, this is the moment Alaska stands at a crossroads.
We finally have a president ready to deliver what we have been fighting for:
Energy independence. Resource development. America First policies tailored to Alaska’s strength. Federal barriers demolished. Our economy unleashed.
And while Trump is swinging open the door, the establishment is off in the corner taking attendance and worrying about who might get their feelings hurt.
We do not have time for that.
Alaska does not have time for that.
Our children do not have time for that.
The truth is simple:
Our silence is killing us. Every time we let bad leadership slide, we shrink our own power. Every time we pretend something is not wrong, we give the establishment permission to keep doing it.
But the second, the very second, conservatives start telling the truth loudly … the second we hold people accountable … the second we stop apologizing for wanting Alaska to be as bold as its people … The grassroots come alive.
Not trickling in … roaring in. Not hesitant … unstoppable. Not divided … finally unleashed.
We are not losing because the grassroots are loud. We are losing because too many insiders only speak when it protects them, and demand silence when it protects you.
That ends now.
Alaska will not be saved by polite whispers. It will be saved by people who refuse to sit down. People who stop asking for permission. People who understand that unity without truth is not unity, it is surrender. If Alaska is going to rise again, it will be because ordinary conservatives decided silence is no longer an option.
This is the moment to stand, to speak, to lead.
If that makes some people uncomfortable? Good. Comfort has cost us enough.
The future belongs to those ready to tell the truth, loudly, consistently, and without apology.
And Alaska is more than ready.
Pam Melin is president of the Valley Republican Women of Alaska.
11 thoughts on “Pam Melin: Unity isn’t the problem; silence is. And Alaska has paid the price”
Yes. Yes. And more yes. Kudos Pam.
Don’t get angry. The corrupt are only sending the polish to polish their ownthrone chair in Hell when their expiration date arrives. Unless they realize what a sinner they are before that inevitable day
But seriously no
55% may have voted for Trump not once but twice. But it’s the 45% or 30% who are actively attending your neighborhood councils. Serving or attending community boards and commissions, sitting on non profit board of directors, and even using their employments to hire likeminded job applicants to serve one another in All and all move the state of Alaska blue which Ak Democrats are only one election cycle away from total domination
All Ak democrats need is the Governor’s office in 2027 and the same legislature they have had the last ten years
What AKGOP needs is for starters is your party staff need to figure out how to lead or they get out of the way when they recognize in themselves they don’t know how to lead a party and keep egotistical elect leaders fighting on the same side despite their differences, beliefs, and ambitions.
And Yes 🙌🏼 it will
Its promised
——“The future belongs to those ready to tell the truth, loudly, consistently, and without apology.“—
“The first will be last and the last will be first” “the meek shall inherit the earth”
“ All evil doers both the wealthy here and the poor here both Republican and Democrat will be in the lake of fire”
What you and I need to do is do what LORD commanded us to do and be faithful until it’s our end’s turn to go too
All of this would have never happened had the state legislature been moved to the valley. We ALL know why that never happened. It’s been the plan all along.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the location of the legislature is not part of the problem. The character of the people elected would not change based on where they gather. Look who’s at the center of the needless drama going on within the state house minority. Selfish and unscrupulous people do not suddenly become upstanding public servants if they’re no longer in Juneau.
Pam, You are spot on. I appreciate your call to action to break the silence. For me, data is a clear cut way to break through the noise:
The State of Alaska Constitution was voted on in 1956. Here are the statistics of that vote:
Context for interpreting the 1956 constitution vote
Votes cast: 25,627
With ~118,000 adults in the territory:
→ Rough turnout for this single ballot measure ≈: 21–22% of eligible adults.
This makes it clear that:
Fewer than 1 in 4 adult residents voted on the Alaska Constitution.
A total of 17,447 people (≈15% of adults) voted yes.
Alaska Native adults were significantly under-represented due to structural barriers still present pre-statehood.
I wonder how many women voted in 1956 regardless of race?
And to be clear, I am a conservative woman. I support unleashing economic prosperity throughout Alaska. Politics – smolitics. Sovereignty is a fancy word for freedom. Freedom is not a sentence delivered by an orator, it is an act, a verb, a way of life. We are as free as we are individually able to financially make each of our personal dreams come true, without being marginalized by dependency and paternalistic government.
There is a place for government. But it is not the government’s place to block, administer, debate, or approve my pursuit of happiness.
I support President Trump. I have supported him long before I was “fired” in an Alaska audition for The Apprentice when the show first started. I donated to his 2016 Presidential Campaign.
I was battle-worn by the time COVID hit, and I still voted for him in 2020.
I lived in Las Vegas and witnessed the homeless population explode as a result of the federal government paying for people’s rent, and the landlords increasing those monthly rent costs. The tenants did not necessarily care until they had to reenter the workforce. A workforce where companies did not increase people’s wages to keep pace with the federal subsidies that created a byproduct of gentrification of neighborhoods sponsored by the Biden Administration.
The last worst President was Obama. He wiped out small business minority-owned, veteran-owned, and woman-owned businesses within his first 90 days of Presidency. He held grand events, highly publicized by the media, with Tribal Leaders. Tribal Leaders walked away with a signed photo and more grant applications and reporting requirements, and red tape as their egos were fanned.
President Trump cut through the red tape. He cut through every Federal Department and put money directly from the Department of the Treasury to Tribal Governments with the CARES Act. President Trump was so shocking to Tribes that Tribes did not trust that they could receive funding through true self-governance and government-to-government relationship with the United States, that the Tribes were afraid.
They were paralyzed in some cases, asking for guidance on how to spend it, and how they should report back to the United States that they spent it.
Crazily enough, Tribes were even accusing President Trump of not providing a framework and guidance for them on what to do with the money. (The opposite of Self-Governance).
Did you know that all congressional appropriations come from Treasury? Then those funds go to whatever department (HHS, State, etc), and those Departments take their administrative cut off the top. Then those departments create grant applications and hire grant reviewers, and contract with federal small business event planners to conduct mandatory conferences to train grantees on how to apply for grants. It goes on and on.
There is a place in the world for everyone. I’m not judging. I just have an MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute, which focuses on manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, and processes. We were taught to find the bottleneck in a process, but to do so is understanding more than the slim view that we came from when we entered the program.
We need to keep lawyers, lifelong government civilian employees, NGO executives, and University Professors in their lane. Lawyers are trained to 1) protect themselves, 2) interpret litigation and case law, and 3) scribe agreements. Government civilian employees manage the framework of regulation and are excellent at either creating red tape, pretending to fight against red tape, but value their place in the GS payscale like its high society. NGO executives are awesome, heartfelt, unless they are not. That is a follow the money exercise. University Professors live in their own bubbly universe. What a mecca is that?
I am not judging. It’s just my observation.
Bottom line – freedom is not given, gifted, inherited. It is fought for and by the ultimate sacrifice.
We are the World Economic Power, and we need leaders with hands-on business chops, not theoretical elitists.
I’ve spent a handful of years in DC advocating for Tribal Health authorization and appropriation initiatives. And know this: savvy post-election cannot be so naive that campaign promises open warm and fuzzy doors.
What has been transformational and a resurrection of my belief and hope is what Donald Trump says he is going to do; he will do his darndest to do it. He does not gaslight the public. He is also willing to move off his position, with the evolution of time and the will of the people.
And for the record, his son, Donny, really ticked me off. No junkets should influence global mineral deposit developments.
Our President may be the first President who did not make his money by being a politician.
Oh boy howdy, there is a deep dive into public record of the trajectory of politician wealth. Take for instance, the Inlet Tower.
Trudy: “He does not gaslight the public.” By supporting Trump, you have lost your integrity, but at least you still have your gullibility.
I. Don’t see any specific names here. Name and shame them, or they’ll hide behind ” it was Those Guys” not me!!
I agree. Beating around the bush with innuendo, veiled personal attacks, and insider references is not much better than the silence the author says she is opposed to.
If the author was really against silence, she might’ve pointed out that Kevin McCabe, whose fellow legislators in the state house minority recently decided he was not leadership material, continues to stir the pot and sow his division within the legislature. Despite claiming to support Delena Johnson, who defeated him in weekend balloting for the top caucus position, McCabe is still trying to gain support for another round of voting. His reasoning is unclear, since the outcome of any new vote is not likely to change, and McCabe will get to experience personal embarrassment again.