Don Young, the Alaskan congressman who just died, was a fascinating guy. Very populist-conservative on most issues, but the isolation of Alaska from the rest of American culture meant he could comfortably take a lot of positions that went against the national Republican Party. Alaska is the most pro-union GOP state in the country, so he was the only Republican to vote in favor of pro-worker union reform. He was vaguely LGBTQ-acceptant, had a fairly friendly relationship with Alaskan Native communities, and recently sided with Democrats in criticizing conditions for migrants at the US-Mexican border. He also called for national marijuana legalization earlier than many Democrats
It’s kinda sad that, as the Republican Party continues to move to the right, the older generation of “independent conservative weirdos” like Don Young and Walter B. Jones are all dying out and being replaced with standard party hacks
