Rep. Young entertains local crowd

Editor’s note: This story contains a profane quote that may be offensive to some readers.

PALMER — U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) warned local business owners of the consequences of federal overreach and shared his thoughts on a wide range of issues facing the United States during a characteristically improvised speech on Wednesday in Palmer.

Young is famous for blustery, often politically incorrect speeches (he drew criticism from Wasilla High School students during a 2014 appearance in the Valley for perceived insensitivity toward the mentally ill and homosexuals). His presentation before the joint meeting of the Palmer and Wasilla chambers of commerce did not disappoint. Young took shots at Obamacare, avoided taking sides in the 2016 presidential campaign (he complimented Ben Carson), and urged more voters to the polls.

He also joked about a recent CNN clip of him walking through a camera shot that became an Internet sensation.

“That’s something I always wanted to do,” he said.

On public education, Young, a former schoolteacher in Fort Yukon, said concerns about teachers potentially damaging students were overblown, and administrative changes — like the removal of corporal punishment — hampered teachers’ abilities to relate to their students.

“The reality is I can’t hug a kid anymore,” he said. “I certainly can’t thump him. I can’t even glare at him. That’s mental cruelty.”

Classroom interruptions in the form of announcements also prevent effective discipline, Young said.

“If I have a kid in class that’s a really dickhead, when I was teaching, I took care of that problem,” he said. “Now I have to report to the principal and the counselor and to the parents. Then we have a little meeting three days later. In the meantime he’s still in class. How can I teach the other 25 students?”

The authority of the legislative branch has been usurped, he said, by actions taken by the president and individual governmental agencies.

“What we have to do is regain control of the Congress so that we are the ones that write the laws and it’s not done by executive order,” he said. “Then we either fund existing laws or review existing laws that aren’t really working for the people, and we have to have the people’s support.”

Young also compared urban residents and voters to sheep raised on a farm, and warned that the lack of public involvement allowed city residents to be managed like farm animals.

“If you want to control the sheep you put them in big pens. Then you feed ‘em, you sheer ‘em, you water ‘em and then butcher ‘em. That’s not that much different than people. You put them in big cities. Then you feed ‘em, you water ‘em, you sheer ‘em — that’s taxes — and you butcher ‘em,” he said. “If you want to have a problem, have free range sheep.”

Young also blamed a much greater reliance on technology for a lack of social interaction, at one point pantomiming running into another person while using a smart phone. The presentation at times took on the air of a stand-up comedy routine.

“I was at a beauty pageant the other day with a bunch of pretty girls, 19 years old, they’re all on this thing,” he said, holding up a smart phone. “I go ‘You’ll never get married! You’re in a beauty pageant, nobody can see you.’”

Even federal legislators have become obsessed using social media to communicate with staff, Young said.

“Why do I use this thing? I’m a congressman. I’ve never Twittered, gittered, Googled or wiggled,” he joked, to laughter and applause from the audience.

The only solution is face-to-face communication, Young said.

“We’ve got to talk to each other,” he said.

Young was characteristically unapologetic after his speech.

“I am who I am,” he said. “I never change. Sometimes I say things that may be offensive to someone, but I tell them the truth. I don’t think I’m blunt. I’m a teddy bear. My wife says I’m a teddy bear.”

Audience member Chuck Griffin asked Young for a suggested solution to partisan gridlock on Washington, D.C., and pointed out that it was voters who suffered from Congressional inaction. Young responded that both parties have problems, and said concerns about a successor to Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) for House Speaker are overblown.

Griffin said he thought Young tried to answer what may prove to be an impossible question.

“There isn’t one,” he said. “Unfortunately, we need to probably put an end to the two-party system. Maybe I’m being facetious, but we need people that are more interested in being statespersons than in being politicans and power brokers.”

Young met that description, but was ultimately sucked into the system, Griffin said.

“He’s (Young) one of a kind,” he said. “He’s got no choice. He’s done a great job given his odds.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.