By ART CHANCE
(Editor’s Note: Art Chance wrote opinion, theater reviews, and political analysis for Must Read Alaska for many years. He died peacefully in his sleep on October 17, 2023. This column first appeared on July 22, 2018, and we are republishing it in his memory.)
False flag. Flag of convenience. The terms come from an old maritime vocabulary.
In the days of pirates, privateers, letters of marque, reprisals and commerce raids, ships often flew the flag of a country other than the country in which they were registered or in which their owners were resident.
When there was war between the British and the Spanish, it was much safer to fly an American or Dutch flag than a British or Spanish flag.
During the Civil War, the Confederates drove the US flag almost completely from the seas through commerce raids; ships flying the US flag either remained in port or sailed under the flag of another nation, usually Great Britain.
Admiral Raphael Semmes, captain of the CSS Alabama and also a lawyer, was instrumental in driving U.S. commerce off the high seas. He intercepted ships that “looked American” but flew a different flag and, at gunpoint, convened an admiralty court to determine the ship’s true nationality.
Even if it was obviously an American-built ship and the captain could credibly prove that it was indeed a neutrally owned vessel, he would shake his hand and send him on his way. If not, he would take the crew and passengers prisoner, claim the ship as booty, or burn it (usually the latter).
Long ago, flags of convenience were a common ploy for ships in dangerous waters. They would simply fly the flag of the nation that was less likely to get them into trouble as they sailed into dangerous waters.
The only real rule was that they had to hoist their registration flag when entering a port; some did, some did not.
In modern times, this has evolved to register a vessel in the country where the regulations are easiest and the taxes are lowest. Just look at all the vessels registered in Liberia, Panama or the Bahamas, most of which have never seen those places.
OF RINOS AND POLITICS
The term RINO has nothing to do with ships. RINO is the term invented by quasi-libertarians and self-proclaimed “true conservatives” to describe Republicans with whom they disagree; Republicans in name only.
I suppose there are some, but I prefer to describe them as those who wear the “R” as a kind of flag of convenience. Since the early 1980s, there have only been a handful of districts in Alaska where you could get elected with a “D” after your name.
I have known and worked with many elected and appointed officials who could not be expected to engage in intelligent political discussion and who had no real political foundation, but who flew the “R” flag because it was a flag that helped them navigate dangerous political waters better than any other.
Now we can try to relate this to politics in Alaska today. There are some figures in Republican politics whose loyalty to the principles of the Republican Party I would question. The Democrats have done us the favor of making some of them an attractive offer to give up their feel-good color and find their true loyalty. We know who they are.
Then there is the plan by the unions and Democrats to put up false flag candidates. These are people who are diehard Democrats but who couldn’t possibly win an election as a Democrat because of the political makeup of the district. There were several of them, and a few were elected. The unions and Democrats actively recruited them, funded them, and provided them with their organization and clout – mostly illegally, but nothing is illegal if nobody enforces the law.
At least Vince Beltrami of the AFL-CIO has turned himself into a sort of Bill Walker-style independent in his bid for the state Senate. Now they’ve gotten even bolder: they’re fielding union Democrats who are posing as “conservative Republicans.”
In Eagle River, the wife of union member Joe Merrick, whose entire family income comes from the union, is running in the Republican primary on the grounds that she is a “conservative Republican.”
I’m sorry, but you can’t be the wife of a union leader and a “conservative Republican.”
(Read: The band is getting back together: Musk Ox Coalition gets labor money)
Union men have hatred of Republicans in their genes. Two drinks and a few minutes of conversation with any old union member about the Taft-Hartley Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act will bring tears to the union man’s eyes and get him ranting about evil Republicans – and that resentment goes back to 1948.
Unions, like law firms, designate some of their employees as Democrats and some as Republicans. You didn’t see that often in the rest of the state, but in Juneau, you knew the designated Republicans in a union just as you knew the designated Republicans and Democrats in a law firm.
Kelly Merrick is running a false flag; she is not a “conservative Republican,” any more than I am a Bernie Sanders-supporting millennial. She is one of Vince Beltrami’s false flag Republicans recruited to run in Republican districts and then run with the Democrats.
The people of Eagle River deserve better than this cynical policy.
Art Chance was retired director of labor relations for the State of Alaska, formerly in Juneau and then in Anchorage. He was the author of the book “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available on Amazon. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite government” to describe a governor who is simultaneously a Republican and a Democrat. This was a serious insult to hermaphrodites, but he never apologized to Governor Bill Walker.
