“The eyes are the window to the soul” the idiom of Shakespearean provenance tells us. Michael Anthony Peroutka’s piercing blue eyes are suggestive of a deep intellect; they convey a personable man of deep conviction which he carries with ease and confidence. He has an aura of a man securely grounded in life’s experience, topped-off with a touch of that famous Southern charm, and a bit of musical talent — he is not shy about bringing his guitar along to a fundraiser! But then, this is not the political season for cookie-cutter, finger-to-the-wind, candidates!
Mr. Peroutka, the Republican nominee for the Attorney General of Maryland, is not a candidate guided or swayed by the whims of momentary public sentiment — something our founding fathers fretted about. He is a constitutionalist through and through. To Mr. Peroutka, a retired attorney with some thirty years of experience in the field, any position, any action, any law or policy has to be viewed through the prism of constitutionality. That is the standard, and it is non-negotiable. It should not be negotiable. Ever.
Mr. Peroutka is a graduate of Loyola University, (B.A.), and the University of Baltimore, Juris Doctor (J.D.). In addition to his extensive legal experience, Mr. Peroutka has been politically active throughout his career. Most recently he served as a member and Chairman of the Anne Arundel County Council. Prior to 2014, when he officially joined the Republican Party, Mr. Peroutka was associated with the Constitution Party of the US, and was the presidential nominee of that party in 2004. His campaign slogan was: “God, Family, Republic”. As a sign of the times, he has come under attack for using this once commonplace, traditionalist, American slogan. He has also been vilified for his association with various historical groups.
The progressives and the modern left have, for all intents and purposes, vilified history. We see that in our county where a person running for office has been vilified for participating in historical re-enactments. Mr. Peroutka too has been caught in this vicious net. It is somewhat mind-boggling that these very critics don’t seem to recognize the contradiction in their own argument: how could a constitutionalist be a fascist? It is a question that needs to be asked of the contemporary mobs fond of hurling this epithet at anything or anyone not within their circumscribed ideological vista. They betray their own historical, linguistic, and philosophical illiteracy. But that is a story for another day.
Mr. Peroutka holds that a number of radical actions that were taken under the auspices of Covid-19 Emergency were unconstitutional. Since its founding this country has been through any number of crises, disasters, wars, depressions, pandemics, and social upheavals of one kind or another. Never in the history of this great nation has the government saw fit to institute such drastic measures, such drastic individual mandates, and such drastic curtailments of individual liberty. Who could ever envision that in the United States of America, “the home of the free”, the government could, under the threat of arrest, force you to allow your loved ones to suffer and die alone, or to not be able to hold or attend a funeral?
Even as a postscript these actions seem too horrendous, too cruel to dwell on for too long, and yet, that is the reality we were all forced to endure under government mandates that were both immoral and unconstitutional. I ask you to pause for a moment and reflect upon that.
Maybe your parent, sibling, or a friend did not die alone, surrounded only by the sterility of a hospital room, but many, many did. These fellow citizens who have endured such cruelty are due our sympathy, empathy, and an apology from this administration. Most significantly, we should all demand an assurance that this will never happen again — and that is the very platform Mr. Peroutka is running on.
We believe history will judge these mandates harshly, and prove Mr. Peroutka’s position to be the correct one from a political, constitutional, and from a humanitarian perspective.
In a recent interview Mr. Peroutka stated, unabashedly: “My top priority would be to redress what I call gross violations of the rights of the people to assemble, to care for their own medical health, to run a business. All these mandates, edicts, orders, proclamations – wherever you want to call them – are not law. They’re not lawful.”
The laws of a nation are the codification of its values — in our case Liberty is the crowning glory of our constitutional framework. Observance and enforcement of these laws is fundamental to an orderly functioning of a free society.
Amen. Please go out and vote for a constitutionalist, dedicated to preserving our God-given and constitutionally protected rights, for our next Attorney General.
Tatiana Croissette
Kent County
Michael Davis says
“Never in the history of this great nation has the government saw fit to institute such drastic measures, such drastic individual mandates, and such drastic curtailments of individual liberty. Who could ever envision that in the United States of America, “the home of the free”, the government could, under the threat of arrest, force you to allow your loved ones to suffer and die alone, or to not be able to hold or attend a funeral?”
The 400-year history of slavery in this country belies the claims made in this letter to the editor.
Alex Morgan says
In the interest of clear thinking, government DID NOT MANDATE SLAVERY. All the statement above are correct. Please educate yourself on the role and function of government, and its history, before posting such bombastic comments.
Jim Bachman says
In the interest of clear reading, Mr. Davis did not claim that slavery was a government mandate. However, it was government enforced which is what the original post referred to.
Jim Franke says
An Attorney General who doesn’t even believe in evolution? What could go wrong with that? Is the earth flat also?
From the Baltimore Sun in October 2014:
Pamela Wood
For those following Anne Arundel politics, here’s the full question-and-answer from last night’s County Council debate that involved Michael Peroutka discussing evolution. There was a lot of interest in this on Twitter.
Q: Anne Arundel County high schools’ start time is some of the earliest in the state. This affects academic performance and general health and welfare of our kids. Are you for or against delaying the start time and please share your knowledge on the subject matter.
Peroutka:
“‘Please share my knowledge on the subject matter.’ The start time of … (sighs) … Earlier, in an earlier answer, I mentioned that that the fact that God and him being the author of law is removed from government schools, public schools, is a fundamental flaw. You know, I mentioned that the American view of law and government, our law, is based on the idea that our rights come from God and our children are taught that they can’t even talk about where our rights come from. Our children are taught that their great-great-grand-daddy was a hunk of primordial ooze in a pond somewhere and that their grand-daddy was a, was a slimy, eely thing that finally grew legs after a million years and their daddy was a monkey and then, they’re, what are they? They’re like a son of a monkey. What’s funny is, then they try to teach the kids self-esteem. What they’ve just taught the kids was a mass of mutations and mistakes. So, what time they begin doing that in the morning is really not important.
Michael Pullen says
Wow. Here’s the real story on this guy, from Wikipedia.
Peroutka is a former member of the League of the South, a white supremacist and white nationalist organization designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.[2][3] Peroutka is known for his pro-secessionist views, and has said that he is “still angry” that Maryland did not join the Confederacy in the Civil War. Peroutka has voiced support for disproven conspiracy theories about the September 11 terrorist attacks, falsely claiming that the attacks were an “inside job” accomplished using explosives.[4]
The writer is putting lipstick on a pig. This guy is totally unfit. For a more complete outline of his whacky views, check out Maryland Matters,
https://www.marylandmatters.org/2022/09/30/peroutka-pledges-to-bypass-abortion-marriage-laws-would-pursue-legal-action-against-hogan/
David Lee says
I did not know we were having issues with our constitutional right to assembly…unless he is referring to the mob that “assembled” in the Capital building on January 6th….hmmmm. Or maybe it was just a reenactment of the British sacking in the war of 1812? Beware extremists on either side of the political divide. Amen.
alex morgan says
Prohibited, under a threat of arrest, from: seeing loved ones in a hospital or nursing home, prohibited from holding and attending funerals, prohibited from running your own business, prohibited from working, prohibited from attending church or any other social event … should I go on? What exactly do you think FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION means? Can the left think at all anymore or do you simply spew out the talking points?
Jim Bachman says
Those ages sure aren’t going to darken themselves!
ALEX MORGAN says
Beautifully written article which gets to the heart of matter: to restrain the out-of-control government. Hogan has done much to weaken the restraints that typically come with a Republican philosophy, but then he was not really a Republican now, was he?
Mickey Terrone says
Simply stated, Mr. Peroutka is a menace to American society and an evangelical fanatic whose personal interpretations of the Bible are dangerous to the future of our democratic republic. The issue of God being the direct author of our laws is an obscene falsehood. The Founding Fathers made it an essential point that this country would not be a religious state but prayed that its people would treat each other as they would want to be treated and that all men are created equal.
Many passages in the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. Mr. Peroutka’s faithful dedication to the Confederacy and the League of the South strongly suggests that he sees the Confederate interpretation of the Bible that claims slavery is the Will of God, just as in 1861, the slave states’ evangelical Christian Churches gave God’s blessing to the Confederate military effort to permanently reestablish slavery via the Confederate Constitution. This is why its important to reject the presence of the Confederate flag on our public property.
That Mr. Peroutka has the devoted Talbot County support of the local extremist Republican Party and its Family Advocacy Alliance is a direct reflection of radicalization of that party here, from Cox, to Peroutka, to Harris and right on down the slate to all four School Board candidates. Do they use the Bible to dismiss the the 2020 Election results? Was God against the 62 court challenges lost by Trump?
The time for a reality check for these extremists is November 8. Keeping religious extremists out of public office is a critical safeguard for the future of our democratic republic and the future of Talbot County.