Rep. Harris turns back on medicine, district to challenge Hogan’s leadership
Rep. Andy Harris, the five-term congressman from Cockeysville, never ceases to amaze. His district encompasses much of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline, yet he generally votes against environmental protections that might spare it further degradation. A physician educated at Baltimore’s prestigious Johns Hopkins University, he has voted to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (and with it, health insurance for people who can’t afford it otherwise) at every turn. As a state senator representing Baltimore County, the Republican was something of a right-wing gadfly who gave a lot of floor speeches and often zigged when others zagged in Annapolis. But in recent years, he’s become a committed acolyte in the cult of Donald Trump, excusing the president’s Twitter tirades, racist rants and blatant lies with nary an exception. That has included adopting the administration’s “Wuhan virus” label early in the pandemic instead of calling it COVID-19 as his fellow medical professionals do.
Yet even by this standard of “shock and awful,” Representative Harris hit a new low over the weekend when, during a stop on the rolling ReOpen Maryland protest, the 63-year-old told the angry mob gathered in a Salisbury parking lot that Gov. Larry Hogan’s stay-at-home restrictions in this state — which have likely saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives — amounted to the actions of a despot. Specifically, he compared them to North Korea and “Communist China,” two of the planet’s most repressive regimes. This kind of outrageous hyperbole is to be expected from some of the folks who have been conducting similar rallies around the country, wearing camouflage and toting semi-automatic rifles in Lansing, Michigan, or using the Nazi “work sets you free” slogan in Chicago along with their MAGA caps. But this was a member of Congress who should understand, unless he’s ready to turn in his medical license, the purpose of social distancing, wearing face coverings, keeping gatherings to 10 or less and other efforts Governor Hogan has supported.
“I didn’t wake up in Communist China and I didn’t wake up in North Korea … and tomorrow morning, I should be able to go to the church of my choice and worship the way I choose,” Mr. Harris said on Saturday.
As we’ve observed repeatedly, there is certainly a legitimate argument out there for the specifics of exactly how stay-in-place orders should be carried out and how they should be lifted. But the protesters aren’t interested in debate or weighing the consequences of taking steps that might worsen the pandemic versus making it easier to do business or socialize in this state. Instead, they claim that Maryland’s Republican governor has violated the U.S. Constitution, and they support the recentlyfiled lawsuit seeking to reverse restrictions entirely and immediately. There is no subtlety here, no reasoning, no careful consideration, no balance of risks. They want it their way or the highway and, in the process, seek to bring an early demise to their fellow Marylanders — roughly 1,200 of whom have already succumbed to COVID-19 — not to mention ignore the will of most people who live in this state as polls show overwhelming support for Governor Hogan’s approach.
Please note, the protesters certainly have that right. Just as flat-earthers have the right to make their ridiculous arguments. And we are certainly accustomed to Trump adherents modeling their leader’s behavior by acting outrageously. Maybe some think any publicity is good publicity. Maybe some are simply in lockstep with fascism. Who knows? We are past sorting that out. But there are consequences to acting irresponsibly, particularly for a member of Congress. In just one month, 1st District primary voters go to the polls and, as it happens, there is a highly qualified candidate running against the incumbent. Jorge Delgado is a Maryland native, a Worcester County resident and veteran campaign and Capitol Hill staffer who, most recently, served as a top economic policy adviser to GOP Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who bills himself a “common sense conservative,” which sounds an awful lot like the governor of Maryland.
District residents would do well to take a long, hard look at Mr. Delgado, who certainly represents mainstream party views from his support of gun ownership rights to fiscal responsibility and at least one conservative ideal that Mr. Harris has clearly neglected — term limits. Mr. Delgado believes four terms is as much as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives should serve, which puts Mr. Harris one term into overtime, a circumstance GOP voters can now correct.
The Baltimore Sun editorial board — made up of Opinion Editor Tricia Bishop, Deputy Editor Andrea K. McDaniels and writer Peter Jensen — offers opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. It is separate from the newsroom.