I’ve avoided bringing local politics into Northeast Reader (a separate project may soon fill that void) but this topic has national implications and segues into something much broader. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is finishing out his second and final term. He’s been very popular throughout most of his tenure and currently ranks as third most popular governor in some polls. He’s a Republican in a heavily blue Democrat state. I too was a fan for most of his time in office and maybe could still be counted that way if only for the fact that the alternative here, now, and more so in the future, will likely be openly socialist woke idealogues. Think in terms of Baltimore and Washington DC municipal governments here. Apart from that, Hogan has more recently also staked out his territory as a RINO. He was always quiet on many conservative issues, and many didn’t mind as long as he was righting years of prior fiscal abuses caused by his predecessor. For that, I give him credit.
The first major inkling that something was far more off was when the pandemic hit. His caution at first seemed appropriate but as we learned more about Covid, compared and contrasted that with his responses that leaned progressively more power hungry, he began to seem as someone quite different than we had known. He was not the worst; he wasn’t for example, like a Cuomo in NY or a Witmer in Michigan, but he relished his emergency powers far too much. We soon learned why.
Hogan was positioning himself as a savior on a white horse in opposition to Trump and to run for President himself. These two causes go hand in hand. He couldn’t process anything Trump did objectively as long as he thirsted for the office occupied by Trump. He became a familiar guest on many-a talking head show and the leftist media ate it up. He was clearly enjoying the role. Leftist Democrat-leaning news organizations don’t like successful Republican office holders but one that held high profile scorn for Trump, the ultimate leftist Democrat nemesis, was cause to make very nice to Hogan. He seemed oblivious to their motives.
Hogan prides himself on being a protégé of Ronald Raegan; perhaps even thinks of himself as Raegan’s true heir. Dream on. Ronald Raegan was a mainstream Republican as it existed back at that time, and he was also a populist. Hogan belongs to the flaming wreckage of mainstream Republicanism but Trump is the populist, not Hogan. Guess which attribute is more important in this equation? But if there were a tie breaker, it would be the ‘America First’ doctrines enunciated by Trump. Larry Hogan seems to not understand that Ronald Raegan was America First before it had that name; back in the day, so were many other Republicans; in fact, a great many Democrats were still America First in the 80s and prior though few would admit it now. The wing of the Republican Party that Hogan thinks he represents and its big corporate powers that used to underwrite it, all moved left and want nothing to do with America First in any past or present iteration.
In a mockup poll for a Presidential run, Trump leads all other Republicans and Democrats by a wide margin. Last I saw, Hogan was running at 1% in those polls. A story I saw this week quoted Hogan as saying Trump should not run for President in 2024. There are a few ways this could be taken: spiteful, opportunistic in a delusional sort of way, but really, it signifies a profound cognitive blind spot in an assessment of America today. How would Hogan hope to command the respect of what may now be close to 200 million people that have deep felt appreciation for what Trump did and would continue in the future, in contrast to the Democrat/RINO formula for this country. Hogan has demonstrated that he despises that constituency. Would he command love and respect from the Democrat left? If Hogan believes the national left is anything like Maryland’s present electoral arrangement, he and his advisors are just grossly delusional.
I liked Larry Hogan as long as he was tending to the tattered republic of Maryland, especially during his first term. I would wish for his sake that he’d have left his legacy alone, free from the taint of ambition. While I don’t want a RINO senator here, it would have been better than the likely alternatives. He could have continued to work to make Maryland something other than solid blue or tutored other state executives on fiscal success. Alas.