“Alaska is like a microcosm of America”

[thincaboutit]

That's what Sarah Palin said during her last Katie Couric interview.
Really? Here are just SOME of the many ways Alaska is so not like the rest of the U.S.

According to 2006 stats, 3.7% of the population is African-American; 12.8% of the U.S. population is African-American. 5.6% of the population is Hispanic; 14.8% of the U.S. population is Hispanic. She really should know better than ANYONE how different Alaska is than the rest of the U.S. Especially when you consider 15.4% of the population is Native/American Indian, compared to only 1% of the U.S. population. She couldn’t think that the rest of the U.S. is populated with Native Alaskans, could she!?!
But it’s not just ethnically different. 6.8% of the population of Alaska is over 65 compared to 12.4% of the U.S. population over 65.
Some microcosm…

Check out this Sarah Palin Parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdRrqkgTGNk

Check out this Economic Crisis paarody, featuring John McCain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=henMX35nkJg

Check out this John McCain Parody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Dhxu-6l98

[billyoc]

1. Yeah, the most ruthless criminals rise to the top.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Plus something like 60% of Alaska is Federal land, not under the Governor's jurisdiction. n/t.

[mscuedawg]

3. Modus operandi....Alaskan Independence Party...

I loved how at the third request for knowing what periodicals she reads in her discussion with Couric to

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

[Ian David]

4. I didn't realize we were THAT fucked-up. n/t

[Lorien]

5. Plus it has one of the highest rates of rape, domestic abuse and child abuse

in the Nation.

[AndyTiedye]

17. So Many Rapes in Her Home Town That The Police Couldn't Afford to Buy the "Rape Kits"

[theoldman]

6. Compared to the lower 48, Alaska is like a foreign country.

The same goes for Hawaii, a series of islands.

[lapfog_1]

7. The really big difference...

each and every Alaskan receives a check for $3200 (oil revenue sharing agreement).

Lower 48 - each and every driver spends about $2200 to $2800 for gasoline every year (oil producers monopoly agreement).

[southerncrone]

8. Another glaring misconception P'n promoted that MSM pundits did not correct.

Not only are the peoples different, almost ALL the demographics differ from the rest of the country. The most obvious one is that her budget is so much smaller than the rest of the states'.

She must be comparing it to some of the Western states like WY, NV, MT, etc. Thinking that we're ALL Repuke states. Simply shows her ignorance.

Suspect P'n was banking on the fact that most Amurikans have never visited Alaska, & pay little attention to the state, so they are uninformed & wouldn't know. . . . or care.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. Exactly right, Sarah. We in the lower 48 all live off government checks too.

We're all rugged individualists, just like your neighbors.

[mtnsnake]

10. Yeah, sure, Sarah. That's why most of us will be driving to work instead of flying

Could she possibly be any dumber?

[vaberella]

11. What is the relevance of this? I'm serious.

When she says "microcosm" I get what she means, although it's senseless, much like this thread.

Getting upset over this statement seems over the top. It's a state. Not all the states share the same ratio of people racially, that's on average. In places like Mississippi there is a Black belt, ie the south east states show a strong Black American presence which is not seen in the north west of the Americas.

[mtnsnake]

12. Maybe because her analogy is so outrageous?

and just one more example of what a complete moron she is? :shrug:

[thincaboutit]

14. The difference is..

you don't hear the governor of Mississippi saying that Mississippi is like a microsm of America. Yes, every states DOES have different ethnic makeup. Some MORE different than others. Some states might be more like the average of the U.S. Some are clearly not. Alaska is one of them It is NOT like most U.S. states in MANY ways. So why does she portray it as being like the rest of the U.S. It's not. She does it, for a few reasons. If we give her the benefit of the doubt, she does it to make her "experience" in Alaska appear to be relevant to the rest of the country. The situation in her state is SO different than other states, it's really not relevant. I am more of the belief that she really doesn't know what it is like the rest of the U.S. We already know she doesn;t travel much, so it's not that hard to believe that she really doesn;t know. And that is important. It's not just a racial thing...

[Dissent Is Patriotic]

15. So then explain how she meant it? In what way is Alaska

a microcosm of the US?

[Bucky]

13. Race isn't the only thing--or really even the major thing--that defines people.

You make it sound like the only thing that matters.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. You want demographics?

I got your demographics right here.

Alaska's demographics http://alaska.usn.myareaguide.com/demographics.html

Anchorage demographics http://anchorage.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm


So we have more Natives, fewer Hispanics
More Pacific Islanders, fewer African-Americans
More Asians, fewer whatever, I don't know

Approximately 90 languages are spoken in the Anchorage School District.

We really aren't all that different from other areas in the US as far as diversity goes. We have unique issues, most specifically involving transportation since vast areas of the state and many people are off the road system, but if you came to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai/Soldotna, or Juneau, for instance, it wouldn't feel all that different from other cities in other states.

I'm really tired of Alaska being considered "foreign."

[Retrograde]

18. that's ok, my state is considered downright alien

as in, from outer space. Yeah, California, good enough for candidates to ask us for money but not good enough to visit. Land of fruits, flakes and nuts - and proud of it!

All states have their own unique aspects. Actually, Alaska and California do have quite a few things in common: large, oil producers, twits as governors...

[Blue_In_AK]

20. I lived in the Bay Area

for six years back in the late '60s and early '70s and loved it. Maybe that's why Alaska doesn't feel so foreign to me. :hug:

[BumRushDaShow]

21. I have heard Alaska compared more to Los Angeles

but I think what is missing is the fact that NO state is a "microcosm" of the U.S. No area can make such a claim. This country is very much "regional" in thought and much of it has to do more with geography, which inturn helped to influence what demographics, both in the past and currently, are in a particular area.

People in areas not near or in a desert will never understand "water rights". Those who are far inland will never understand the worries of "beach erosion and ocean pollution". Those not in or near oil-producing states will never understand what it's like to drive down a highway and see those big pumps. Those in the subtropical U.S. will never understand how anyone should have to "plug in their car" at a mall to keep their engine blocks from freezing in -40º F temperatures, nor could those in the snow belts understand how one can simply use an evaporative cooler instead of air-conditioning to keep cool when the temperatures routinely hit 110º F in summer. Those in temperate climates with multiple seasons can't envision what it's like to have only 2. Those not in the land of the midnight sun can't picture what it would be like with 20+ hours of sun in summer and subsequently, 20+ hours of darkness in winter. Those in rural areas can't fathom how one can live so densely packed with neighbors above, behind, and to either side, whereas those in urban areas can't fathom how one could live an hour away from a supermarket.

We all evolve to try to conform to where we live and many who don't like it or can't take it, tend to move or try to... But no place is a "microcosm". Even famous illustrators like Norman Rockwell or artists featured by Currier & Ives, missed the boat in terms of trying to determine what was honestly "typical" as the portrait of "America".

[Blue_In_AK]

23. I agree with what you're saying here.

In Sarah's defense, I think the point she was trying to make -- and not very well -- was that Alaskans are Americans just as surely as New Yorkers are or Californians or Floridians. We do get accused of being somehow "other" so many times, I think maybe we get a little defensive about it. I know I do.


About the Los Angeles thing, some people call my hometown Los Anchorage I guess because it's so "cosmopolitan" here? :shrug: Compared to the rest of the state, I guess that's true.

[LiberadorHugo]

19. ummm okay.

Last time I checked, villages without plumbing or electricity were not par for the course in America.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Maybe not "par for the course"

now, but it was some years ago. I lived on a farm in Southern Ohio when I was a little girl, and we didn't have indoor plumbing until we moved to Dayton when I was seven. And we WERE on a highway.

The main issue with the villages is their inaccessibility and the extremely high cost of creating infrastructure out there. You can't just run down to the Home Depot and pick up supplies. Progress is being made on the electricity front -- you can read about the Alaska Village Electrical Cooperative, for example, here http://www.avec.org/ . Also a considerable amount of money has been allocated to improve the plumbing in the villages that are lacking, and considerable advances are being made.

Alaska is a relatively new state compared to the rest of the union - our infrastructure is behind because of that. The elders in the villages remember when they lived a completely subsistence lifestyle out there. It may be considered "foreign" by people in the Lower 48, but these people are as American (or more so, really) as you and I.