Rep. Young's time has come

Representative Don Young put on another crowd-pleasing performance on Wednesday in Palmer.

Ever the charmer, Young was complimentary to his hosts and gave the members of the Palmer and Wasilla chambers of commerce plenty of conversational fodder with his wide-ranging remarks on topics ranging from Obamacare and school discipline, to government overreach and texting.

The general tone of Young’s speech was similar to others he’s given in which he bemoans the fallen state of American culture and yearns for a simpler (and, it’s implied, better) era before things had been muddled up by liberal ideas like socialized medicine, government oversight of private construction projects, equality of the sexes and the banishment of corporal punishment.

While talking about the use of smart phones, the 83-year-old Young recalled an anecdote where he told a group of “beauty pageant contestants” not to stare at their phones so much or they’d run the risk of not landing husbands. When recalling how he’d deal with school discipline, he let slip a profanity. For Young, the performance was relatively tame.

To use a term that the foul-mouthed congressman should be familiar with, Young’s continued antics are a bunch of bull, and it’s time Alaskans said so.

This is the same congressman who was rude and bullying to a Wasilla High School student during a pre-election visit to the school last fall. He’s also the same guy who was forced to apologize for using a racial slur on the radio against Mexican-Americans. At the time, he said he didn’t realize he’d said anything wrong, since the term was common when he was a kid.

We don’t doubt that. There were a lot of things people said when Young was a kid that are no longer appropriate. That he doesn’t recognize that is a continuing embarrassment for Alaska.

It’s no secret that Young has been a champion for Alaska projects. He’s been a tireless fighter for the state while in Congress and has brought back billions of dollars in the form of transportation funding and other projects that have helped fuel the Alaska economy since he arrived in Washington, D.C., more than 40 years ago.

For these reasons, Alaskans continue to send him back to D.C. year in and year out, usually without anything resembling a contested election. He’s the only congressman many Alaskans have ever known, and he’ll likely remain in the position until he dies. And to his credit, Young sure isn’t slowing down; he fights for us, and that’s something Alaskans should respect.

However, it would be nice if the old bull went out to pasture sooner rather than later. Alaskans need someone in office who understands that the world is a far different place today than it was in “the good old days.” We’re now a more tolerant society in which it’s not appropriate to imply women need to rely on their looks in order to get married and be successful, or that teachers should be allowed to strike their students in class, or that immigrants should be denigrated by members of Congress.

Unfortunately, this is an argument likely to fall on deaf ears.

As long as he continues to get standing ovations — like the one given him this week before his speech in Palmer — Young isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And neither is Alaska.