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June 23, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

Point of View J.E. Dean Top Story

Andy Harris, Hate, and January 6 by J.E. Dean

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I wish I could stop writing about Andy “Handgun” Harris, but he won’t let me. First, he voted against the bipartisan bill to establish a commission to investigate the events of January 6. Then he voted against legislation responding to the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans. With that second vote, I feel obligated to speak out. This man is not representing me. He votes incorrectly with a remarkable consistency.

Harris’ vote against the bipartisan commission was predictable. Andy is in Donald Trump’s pocket. A commission report that definitively established Trump’s role in inciting the January 6 insurrection would be devastating to him. More of his already dwindling group of supporters would throw in the towel. Worse yet, for Trump, the report could prompt civil or criminal actions tied to what he did on January 6 and the days preceding it. 

Trump calls the shots for Andy on anything to do with stolen elections or the need to stamp out democracy. Do voters in the First District care about these issues?  Are you aware of any listening session or other effort by Harris to determine how his constituents feel about investigating January 6? 

More disturbing to me is Andy’s no vote on the hate crimes bill. In fairness, he was joined by 61 other Republicans, including QAnon follower Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), alleged sex-trafficker Matt Gaetz (R-FL), gun advocate Lauren Boebert (R-CO), right-wing dentist Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and a host of other Tea Partiers, Trumpers, and lunatics. 

The bill, officially called the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, passed the Senate in April by a vote of 94-1. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley (R) was the only dissenting vote. You may remember him as the guy who fist-pumped January 6 rioters as they approached the Capitol. Mr. Hawley plans to run for President in 2024 and, if Trump himself is not running (perhaps because he is incarcerated), he is an attractive choice for Trump’s endorsement. 

According to The Washington Post, “The legislation would assign an official in the Justice Department to review and expedite all reports of hate crimes related to the coronavirus, expand support for local and state law enforcement agencies responding to these hate crimes, and issue guidance on mitigating the use of racially discriminatory language to describe the pandemic.”

Are there provisions in S. 937 that most of us on the Eastern Shore are against?  I don’t think so. So why did Andy Harris vote no?  The answer is that he is a rigid idealogue who could care less about the Asian Americans who are getting killed, beaten-up and otherwise harassed across the country.  

House Republicans had little difficulty explaining their no votes. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) offered, “You can’t legislate away hate.”  Maybe he’s right, but shouldn’t we try?

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), one of ex-president Trump’s strongest supporters, offered, “This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police department.”  He appears to have voted against the bill because of his view that the violence is occurring in “Democrat-controlled” cities. Is his vote intended to punish Democrats?  Or is he trying to support his belief that police should not be defunded?

A search for a statement or explanation by Handgun Harris produced nothing. No tweets, no press releases, nothing. 

If you are Asian American and living in the First District, you are, like the rest of us, left to guess why Harris voted no. That is wrong. Importantly, it would be unfair to Harris to suggest that he is indifferent to the violence against Asian Americans. It is not unfair to ask him who he thinks he is representing in Congress.

Had Donald Trump publicly urged his followers to vote for the bill, how do you think Andy would have voted?

The Eastern Shore not only deserves better representation in Congress, but we also desperately need it. As far as many of us are concerned, we would be better off with Andy’s seat left vacant. 

J.E. Dean of Oxford is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, birds, and occasionally goldendoodles.

 

Letters to Editor

  1. Mr Dean, once again you are spewing your hatred against the Republicans. I keep trying to explain to you this has nothing to do with the left or the right. There are good and bad on both sides. There is an agenda out there to disrupt, to pit people one against the other, and you have fallen right into it, hook, line, and sinker. What is out there is good and evil. We have been led by evil for decades! This shall all be exposed soon! Please try to find good things to write about and not the continuous drivel that you know nothing about. I wish you Peace.

    • Please. No more bait and switch: we all know that the GOP is nothing but racist Trump sycophants now.
      There is no “good side” to lies, racism, deliberate voter repression and the nihilistic philosophy of hate mongering. Republicans are deeply culpable in their personal actions and choices that elevated Trump.
      He is now the “leader” of the party. God help this world.

      • Deirdre, I am a “racist Trump sycophant ” because of my status as a registered Republican? What is all this racism? On what, exactly, do you base such a claim? “Deliberate voter suppression”? Where do such thoughts come from?

        Donald Trump is a former president living in Florida. I simply do not see him as a puppeteer now or in the future, though I do miss his leadership in the White House.

        • You know what the Party is doing. No one gets an out, sorry. The Republicans with a moral core have left the GOP.

        • Steve, you “do not see him as a puppeteer”? May I introduce you to Kevin McCarthy?

        • Mr. Schaare, rhetorical questions are sophism. ” Where do such thoughts come from?” you ask. How about from any objective news sources. At least you admit you are a racist Trump sycophant. On that, I believe you.

          • Hi Michael Davis, An objective news source, I suppose, would be CNN or MSNBC ? So, just like so many others you cry racist. I was offended by your remark.

      • Mr Welles, I KNOW it was! Italy, Germany, and China involved with Dominion servers. Arizona audit is finishing up with Trump having lead, NH has found big discrepancies, Georgia is going to finally do a real audit, and PA and Michigan to follow. MSM just isn’t letting the public know what is really going on.
        Now Mr Welles, I have a question for you. Do you really believe Biden received more votes than any other president in history when he was lucky to draw a hundred people to his campaign rallies? While Trump was drawing thousands at his rallies and venues? Convoys of vehicles would travel from one area to the other in many states, they had boat parades on the water in different states for him.

        Anyone who believes Biden legitimately won the 2020 election has blinders on or in the same mental state as Biden.

        But it’s ok. It will all be exposed.

  2. Andy Harris is an embarrassment and is out of step with most folks in his district. It is way past time for a change.

  3. “You can’t legislate away hate” is what we heard in the 1960s when civil rights legislation was being debated at the national and state levels. While that may be true, we can pass laws that regulate behavior, identify acts that society finds repugnant, and punish the perpetrators as necessary. There is no question that these laws work.
    I saw a sign in one of the racial justice demonstration last summer that said, “We’ve come too far to have only come this far.” The fact that we have made what progress we have over the last 50 years in tearing down racial and ethnic barriers is due largely to the effectiveness of the laws that protect the rights of all citizens. To vote against them is simply wrong.

    • The election is being challenged in hundreds of counties by the GOP to stop people of color from voting. The GOP
      knows it cannot win otherwise.

      • Deirdre, Please address my question about your “broad brush” indictment of all Repubs as racist. Whatever became of your party’s devotion to inclusion, diversity and all things warm and fuzzy? Why so bitter?

  4. Deirdre Lamotte, such hatred. I’m sorry you feel that way about the GOP. Please review your history of people in office. Biden did not want to integrate the blacks into the same schools with white children, nor ride the same bus. Another Democrat Senator Bird, who Hillary said was her mentor, was a leader in the Klu Klux Klan. They tell you it’s someone else bringing you down, but all you need to do is look at the bills passed and who voted for them. I will not stoop to hatred. I go on facts and would love to have a peaceful world again. Oh… And I do believe God is getting ready to save this world. God Bless.

    • I am not going to answer your statements which obviously percolate in the right’s news sources. I stand by all I say, as a former Republican of 40 years. Anyone who is still a thinking member of the GOP
      is morally lost. This nation is a democracy. If the GOP has their way, it will be no more. The GOP
      wants nothing to do with a Jan.6 commission because MOC will be exposed and the evidence
      will deliver Trump’s great unwashed on a platter. Not good for 2022, right?!

      You speak of God. Wow, just wow. The irony.

        • WTH? If the “Republic” does not work, there is no democracy. If the GOP has its way, there will be no democracy.

          Aucune difference.

  5. Please continue writing about Andy Harris. He would be an embarrassment whether he was a Republican or Democrat. But it is worse than embarrassing. It is unkind and selfish. I think the only way that you will be able to stop writing about him is if we elect someone else.

    • Darrell: Thank you for my comment. I do plan to continue to monitor Harris’ speeches and votes. You can expect more comment on his activities until he starts representing the First District or leaves office.

  6. Now, now, Tsk, Tsk Mr. Deen, ounce again ewe r spoofing your red hat against the RepoohblQanons. Oui keep trying two explain too ewe ‘dis has no-thing to doo doo with the right, left or even the betwixt & between.

    There are bad (and than there are the really bad; and then the really, really, really bad) on a side yet two bee disc-covered. There is an agenda. Out there. Near Pluto. On that planet starting with the letter following “T” (and not two phar from Que) in the Common English Tongue.

    Disrupt. Pit people (and olives and cherries) against “The Other.” Ewe have fallen (like Beelzebub in concrete shooze) right (and left) into It, line, hook, line, hook and, and, (what was that again?) oh yez — stinker . . . .

    What is out there? Good. And weavils. Oui have been lead by weavils for decades! And good for just — an eternity. This shall all be exposed soon (in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong Pizza Parlor). Please try to find good things to write about (like the Meat lovers Combo Pizza with Free “Soft Drink” at Comet Ping Ping) & not the continuou$ drive-El that ewe no-nothings know nothing about. I wish you Peas. Please.

    * * * *
    Comet Ping Pong Decoder Ring & Space Laser Translator sold separately. Cee if ewe kan find the hiddden mean-ing . . . .

    • Mr. Watts: I can’t afford a Comet Ping Pong Decoder Ring or Space Laser Translator, so I am unable to reply to your comment.

  7. So. Mr. Dean has found a new punching bag.

    Actually, I share his antipathy toward Mr Trump. And I do find Mr. Harris’s positions unfathomable at times. But Mr.Dean’s overwrought screeds are partisan, predictable and tiresome.

    • John, surely you do not find Sean Hannity’s screeds “partisan, predictable and tiresome.” So why not give Mr. Dean a break?

      • Sean Hannity, Tom? Sean Hannity? “That’s a low blow,” he said, chuckling.

    • John, I actually found Handgun Harris some time ago–right after he attempted to carry a firearm onto the Floor of the House of Representatives.

      Sorry you find my “overwrought screeds” partisan, predictable, and tiresome.

  8. Thank you, again Mr. Dean. I appreciate your energy in writing these pieces.

    A fake conservative trope is for Republicans to claim that comparisons of Trump to Hilter are histrionic. This from the same people who spend five days wondering if they should say anything about Rep. Greene comparing wearing a mask to the Holocaust.

    Hilter did not appear on day one starting WWII and murdering 12 million people, including 6 million Jews, disabled people, Gypsies, and many others. He had to work up to it. He used “The Big Lie” just like Trump. He sent thugs to polling places in Germany just like Republican legislators who want partisan poll watchers. Hitler declared elections corrupt. Trump Republicans, which are 67% of all Republicans, are following Hitler’s playbook. We won’t have a democracy much longer if good people do not scream loudly about the fascism of Republicans.

    • Michael: Thank you for reading the piece and adding to the conversation. Much appreciated.

    • Well put, thank you. We’ve got some real
      “winners” pretending to care about our country.
      Just like Germany did in the 1920s and 30s.

  12. As tired as I have become of saying, and repeating, that empty-suit Andy must go, I’ll say it again. He is not a good representative for our District… or at all, for that matter.

  13. Trump will next tell Harris that re-election can only be guaranteed when elections are finally ended altogether.

    I would be CONCERNED were “dr” handy-andy to appear in an operating room while I was going under… It’s an integrity and competency thing…

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