I spent the 2 weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 election hunting on Kodiak Island. When I returned home, I saw many political pundits saying that Donald Trump’s election was the end of a significant struggle. They seemed to feel that the entrenched political interests lost, and would cede power to Trump and his supporters with Trump’s election victory. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Those in control of our government will not give up their power willingly and will fight Trump’s populist movement every step of the way. Recent actions in Washington, D.C., and Juneau show just how determined the Deep State is to remain in power. I also saw a little bit of their impact while down in the town of Kodiak; more on that later.

The national media has covered recent events in Washington, D.C., extensively, so I won’t repeat what has been written. However, one statement must be addressed, and it comes from Alaska’s own little princess, Lisa Murkowski. Donald Trump announced yesterday that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would be Trump’s nominee for Attorney General. The AG works in the executive branch, and one of the incoming president’s privileges is choosing his own cabinet leaders. Our Dear Lisa thinks otherwise. Daddy Frank’s little nepotism hire commented that Matt Gaetz was not a serious appointment and would never be approved by the Senate.

Lisa evidently won’t vote for Gaetz and must prefer AGs to be weak and easily intimidated by the Senate, like the ones in Trump’s first administration. When picking AGs, Lisa Murkowski is not someone whose opinion Trump should rely on. The fact that she is against Gaetz’s appointment makes me like him even more.

Closer to home, I saw a little of what the Deep State means while in the town of Kodiak, before I went bear hunting. Yes, Alaska also has entrenched political interests that control politics in our state; you can call them our local mini–deep State if you wish.

In Alaska, voters imagine that we have a conservative state. We have elected a Republican governor and a majority in our State House and Senate. We vote for and elect Republicans, and then after the election we go about our daily lives confident that we have sent conservatives to represent us down in Juneau. However, it is all Kabuki theater. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Deep State is alive and well in Juneau, subverting the will of the people, and its name is “coalition government.”

The American system of government is based on designed conflict. We have coequal branches of government. Political parties must present their agendas and compete in the arena of public opinion. The winning party gets to enact its legislation.

Unfortunately, in Alaska, politicians have devised a way to subvert this system. RINO Republicans and their Democrat allies have colluded to form coalitions to run both the State House and Senate in the upcoming session of our legislature.

These politicians betray their party and the voters by taking this action. They boldly proclaim that coalition governments amount to both parties working together to achieve what is best for the citizens of this state. The reality is that a coalition government is the fox guarding the henhouse. Without anyone to check their collaboration, the Ds and Rs in the coalitions can split the spoils of the state between them.

“Why fight when we can both get what we want?” might be the motto when pols from both parties join together. Unfortunately, this results in profligate overspending, and the citizens suffer.

Both houses in our legislature will have coalitions this year, which will exclude the most conservative Republican members of their respective bodies. Conservative Representatives like Homer’s Sarah Vance are not part of the House coalition and will have difficulty passing their legislation. The coalition in power can loot and plunder what is left of our state government’s coffers, and who can blame them?

The Senate took this action in the last legislative session and the voters just reelected them. Politicians join coalitions like these because it rewards them and their districts, which makes voters happy and ensures that politicians get reelected. To see how this works, look no further than at all of the new public works in the town of Kodiak.

Gary Stevens was the Senate majority leader in the last session. He and his partner in the State House, Louise Stutes, who has joined this year’s State House coalition, have brought home the bacon for Kodiak in a big way. The massive pork barrel spending they get for Kodiak is achievable when there is no check or balance on what these coalitions choose to spend money on.

Kodiak has many extravagant public works that have partially been paid for with state money, including a state-of-the-art High School, the modern Police Department building, and the bridge to the formerly uninhabited Near Island. Still, nothing epitomizes wasteful spending more than Kodiak’s extravagant Fish and Game and Fisheries Research offices.

These two buildings must have been embarrassingly expensive and could not be justified in any rational spending system. Consider them to be the Taj Mahal of government buildings in Alaska. These buildings belong on some expensive Ivy League college campus and not in the small town of Kodiak. They are bigger than the Fish and Game offices in Alaska’s largest two cities of Anchorage and Fairbanks, and are the most significant and wasteful buildings of their type in the entire state.

Consider that in Senate District C, represented by Gary Stevens, there are two major cities: Homer and Kodiak. Both towns have similar populations and should receive a similar level of financial support from state government. The Fish and Game office in Kodiak is like the Taj Mahal, while the one in Homer is reminiscent of a dollar mall kiosk. Pictures of these buildings can be seen below. Gary Stevens lives in Kodiak and leads the Senates governing coalition; Alaska’s Deep State. His influence is evident from the infrastructure projects he brings back to his home town.

Voters in Senate District C should ask how many highway potholes could have been filled with the money spent on Kodiak’s extravagant and wasteful ADFG buildings. How much funding could have been provided to schools in desperate need? How many state troopers could have been hired? This is just one small example, but it illustrates how the Deep State takes care of itself, while the rest of the state suffers in comparison.

Am I saying that Donald Trump’s election was pointless and that the Deep State is still in control? Not at all. I am simply saying that entrenched political interests exist both in Washington DC, and in Juneau, Alaska, and they will not go away willingly. They will fight to remain in control. Trump’s election victory isn’t the end of the fight against them; it is just the beginning. I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s comment after the Battle of Britain. He said, “This isn’t the beginning of the end, but perhaps it is the end of the beginning.”

The same is true for Trump’s election. The battle against the Deep State didn’t end with Trump’s election; it has only just begun.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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