I happened to be up at Denali National Park the week of this year’s primary elections (for those who might be wondering, yes, I voted early), so I didn’t learn the results until later than most. Upon finally hearing the news, I – like most Alaskans, I suspect – was shocked to learn that Joe Miller had upset Lisa Murkowski in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate. Sure, it was theoretically possible that Murkowski might overcome Miller’s lead of 1,600 or so votes, given the remaining absentee and questioned ballots. But highly unlikely. And now even Lisa has conceded the inevitable: Joe Miller vs. Scott McAdams for the U.S. Senate seat that the Murkowski family had owned for three decades. Who? Versus who?

My initial response of “OMYGOD, are you’re kidding me?” was replaced, moments later, by the thought (repeated many times across the years) that I live in what is politically and culturally a very, very strange place indeed, a sort of alternate universe to rational thought and behavior. It’s a place that in two years has given us the Sarah Palin phenomenon and now Joe Miller, a guy who single-handedly (if you believe his spiel) is gonna change how things are done in Alaska and the whole U.S. of A. If Joe gets his way, there will be no more Social Security or Medicare benefits – maybe not even unemployment compensation, which he’s decided is not “constitutionally authorized.” And he’s going to convince the federal government to let go of its lands in Alaska (and around the U.S.) – more on this last point a bit later.

You have to wonder about the people who voted for Joe. What were they thinking? Or, more to the point, were they thinking?

At least some of the people who voted for Miller – and I’d bet most of ‘em – have to be the same folks who worshipped Ted Stevens, in large part for all the many billions of dollars Mr. Pork Barrel funneled to Alaska during his long reign in the Senate.

Don’t these people understand that Joe is determined to end Congress’s largesse toward Alaska? Don’t they realize he expects Alaska to – GULP! – support itself? Sure, it sounds great to say “Do away with Social Security. Do away with Medicare and unemployment benefits.” But it ain’t gonna seem so great if or when the payments and benefits end.

I guess that’s the great thing about voting for a guy like Joe Miller. You can take a strong anti-government stand – even if it’s in your own worst interest – and not have to worry about it, because Joe Miller won’t be able to do a tiny fraction of what he says he wants to accomplish. Even if the Republicans take over the Senate, Joe’s views will be extreme. And he’ll be a newbie, with little or no clout. That’s another reason the vote for him doesn’t make sense. Sure, voting for him made a great statement. But what’s he really going to accomplish? And look at the seniority that Alaska lost, in a place – the U.S. Senate – where seniority matters a whole bunch, like it or not.

To be honest, I’d grown weary of and hugely disappointed in Sen. Lisa, who once upon a time was a moderate in her words and actions. But as she moved up the Senate’s chain of command, she became ever-more conservative and contrarian, while solidifying her position in what has become the Party of No. I take a little guilty pleasure in relishing the fact that Lisa moved way to the right and even that wasn’t good enough to get herself re-elected. For Joe Miller to call Lisa Murkowski a “liberal” is to show how extreme his own views are. If this is where the Republican party has moved, it is dangerously close to making itself irrelevant to the large majority of Americans. Alaskans I’m not so sure about.

I’ll betcha there are lots of bigger-name Democrats who are now kicking themselves that they didn’t run for the Senate this year. What an opportunity they missed. Though McAdams still has to be considered a long shot, at least he now has a shot, something the Democratic party’s national leadership certainly realizes.

This is going to be one heck of a race between two people who until the past week or so were largely unknowns, even in Alaska. In the space of a few days, Miller gained national renown, or at least notoriety. McAdams, meanwhile, remains a largely unfamiliar face, an underdog. But this fact remains: The people who chose Miller over Murkowski constitute a small percentage of Alaska’s voters. You would think that the primary results would be a jolting sort of wake-up call to anyone left of the extreme far right. Still, this being Alaska, who knows?

I think that Joe Miller’s primary victory could ultimately be a good thing, though not for the same reasons his supporters believe. But I also think that it could be a good thing if the Republican party were to choose Sarah Palin as its next presidential candidate. Some friends shudder when I say that, simply for the fact that she might actually win. I can’t imagine that, but I also couldn’t imagine George W. Bush getting re-elected in 2004. So yeah, it’s a strange, strange world we inhabit.

Now, some final words on Joe Miller and Denali National Park. First, it doesn’t at all surprise me that Joe wants Alaska to take over the state’s federally owned lands, including Denali, as reported in the Alaska Dispatch earlier this week. My guess is that a lot of Alaskans would like to see that. What caught my attention is the disconnect in Miller’s thinking. On the one hand, Joe says, “If there’s a significant resource in that park [Denali] that we could get in a responsible way – and the state decides it’s appropriate to extract it – let’s create jobs from it.” On the other hand, he says he doesn’t favor anything that despoils the wilderness.

Say what? How can you not despoil wilderness by extracting resources from it? Answer: there is absolutely no way. Joe can’t have it both ways, but he seems to want just that. I’m reminded of TV shows and movies about the American West from years ago, when Indians accused whites of speaking with a forked tongue. Or I suppose you could say it appears Joe is talking out of both sides of his mouth. It appears he’s adapting to politics very well, thank you.

Later in the Dispatch piece, writer Joshua Saul reports that Miller “believes that Alaska must end federal paternalism and move toward state control of all lands and encourage aggressive resource development.” Again I ask, how does that jive with keeping wilderness intact and unspoiled?

Joe’s stance on Denali and other public lands is bound to win him favor with many Alaskans, particularly those who are staunchly pro-development and state’s rights advocates. But I wonder how many residents would actually want to see Denali become a resource-extraction site. Alaska’s wildlands and wildlife are among our state’s greatest treasures in their condition of wildness, not simply as resources to be tamed, extracted, or otherwise consumed. At some level Joe Miller seems to understand that. But there’s that disconnect, one that seems to be contagious.

Setting aside his personal philosophy and contradictory statements, there is also this to consider: when asked how he might go about moving Alaska’s lands from federal to state control, Joe suggests building a strong Congressional coalition that would move the country toward his so-called “constitutional model,” in which states’ powers would override the federal government in nearly all situations.

Message to Joe and his followers: It ain’t gonna happen. Nor is the federal government suddenly going to bequeath its lands to states because of a bankruptcy crisis.

On one thing I agree with Joe Miller: the federal government needs to get its spending under control. One way it might do this is to truly trim back Congressional pork. If Joe got elected and could help with that, more power to him. Though once the money stopped flowing to Alaska, I think he’d have a revolt on his hands. The other thing the government could do is end – or severely curtail – its corporate subsidies. And it could trim its obscenely large defense and military budget.

As for opening up Denali National Park’s wildlands to resource extraction, if given the chance: say it ain’t so, Joe. You wouldn’t really do that – would you?