Partisanship is the poison that renders representative democracies dysfunctional. National needs, and often the Constitution, are ignored in the interest of defeating the opposing party and seizing political power. Civility is abandoned, leaving decent people wondering, “Why can’t we all get along?”
The U.S. Senate needs members who collaborate with members from the opposing party. Retiring Senator Ben Cardin is such a Senator. So is Mitt Romney. But both these Senators are retiring. Larry Hogan fits the bill. He worked with Democrats and won twice in the bluest of states. Marylanders, especially Democrats who see the need for bipartisanship in Washington, should vote for him. Right?
Wrong. A vote for Hogan is more than a vote for a good man. It is a vote for a party that, but for the courage of former Vice President Mike Pence, may have overthrown the 2020 election. That party, despite Trump’s accelerating mental decline and legal troubles, has improbably survived to 2024. It should be dead, but it is not.
Electing a handful of “constructive” Republicans will not cure the GOP’s cancer. November’s elections may bring Hogan to Washington, but he likely will be joined by more than a few MAGA monsters who will more than outweigh him. One example, election-denying Kari Lake, who has urged Republicans to “Strap on a Glock” in case God does not deliver the election to Trump (and presumably to herself).
Election denying and receptivity to violence are not the only reasons to conclude that the Republican party should end. Ukraine may lose its war against Vladimir Putin because Republicans delayed needed aid by months. Republicans remain hostile to persons of color and civil rights. The party once championed privacy and limited government. It now wants to ban abortion, regulate what books are shelved in libraries, and dictate whom we can love.
So, while Larry Hogan would be a welcome injection of bipartisanship in the Senate, the higher priority is to keep the Senate in Democratic hands. A vote for Hogan could result in an election denier becoming Majority Leader. Also, can we be sure he would not vote to impeach President Biden should Trump lose the White House with Republicans winning control of the House and Senate?
The Republican party has become an appendage of Trump. His daughter-in-law is overseeing the party’s finances. The Republican senators who would serve with Hogan are almost exclusively election deniers. If Trump loses in November and decides to stage another attempted coup, Hogan is unlikely to join in, but what would he do instead? Stand on the sidelines and watch Senators like Missouri’s Josh Hawley fist-pump insurrectionists as they enter the building?
America needs a party to counter the Democrats. We all benefit when proposals from both sides are challenged and honestly debated. Unfortunately, the Republican party has all but abandoned any attempt to be part of a deliberative legislative body dedicated to the people’s benefit.
When I think about today’s Republican party, I think about our own Andy “Handgun” Harris. Even after House Speaker Johnson, with the apparent blessing of Trump, signaled support for aid for Ukraine and Israel, Harris voted no. His vote suggests that MAGA will live on even if Trump loses. Remember that the Tea Party predated the rise of Trump. MAGA is likely to survive Trump’s passing.
The Republican party should be what is called a “tear-down” in real estate. It needs to be destroyed, its remnants hauled off to a dump, and something better put in its place. Larry Hogan should have volunteered to be part of the crew that dispatched the Republican party. Instead, Hogan made a mistake. He convinced himself that Trumpism and the corruption, racism, and intolerance that he represents are not part of the Republican party.
Hogan is now seeking the votes of millions of Marylanders who still believe that Trump won the 2020 election, that Jack Smith and other prosecutors are out to get Trump by “weaponizing” the Department of Justice, and who fly “F*ck Biden” flags in front of their homes. That is sad. Hogan should have disavowed the Republican party the same way he rejected Dan Cox, the MAGA nutcase nominated by the party to run for governor in 2022.
The first step to restoring order in Washington is for a new, moderate, democracy-loving party to emerge. One way to help make that happen is to vote against Larry Hogan in November.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and, all too infrequently, other subjects.
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