Next week, Gov. Wes Moore is launching a special session of the Maryland General Assembly. In the heat of early August, the state government will set the stage for redrawing congressional maps to satisfy their sweltering political ambitions. In doing so, they will ignore the substantial problems facing this great state and lose their last ounce of credibility and moral standing.
As the governor and his Democratic colleagues pull out their mechanical pencils to etch into law a path toward crafting shamefully gerrymandered electoral maps to further monopolize their power, the struggles of real Marylanders are at the bottom of their priority list.
They aren’t meeting to be better stewards of taxpayer resources in the midst of a credit downgrade. They aren’t meeting to address dismal economic conditions and bleak outlooks. They aren’t meeting to rectify a Maryland executive bureaucracy that is crumbling in its basic functionality. They aren’t meeting to resolve the exodus of a critical mass of Marylanders who are fleeing elsewhere for better opportunities, lower costs and fewer barriers. They aren’t meeting to revise a set of failed policies that have squandered the successes of former Gov. Larry Hogan while sinking the state to the bottom of national rankings. They aren’t meeting to fix struggling schools, secure unsafe neighborhoods, reverse skyrocketing utility costs or rectify a crisis of unaffordable housing.
No, those are all afterthoughts for the current crop of politicians in Annapolis! Instead, they are meeting to recklessly erode democracy, steal your vote and strip away your rights.
They call it redistricting, but we all know better. It’s a blatant power grab and a strategy of disenfranchisement. It also tramples on principles that the stewards of State House power should elevate instead of denigrate.
Moore is leading the charge with a Bronze Star-worthy performance of heroic service to his own national ambitions. In some ways, it’s refreshing that he’s paying attention to Marylanders at all. In almost all his other engagements, he has been AWOL as he tends to things far more important to him than our well-being and the governor’s oath he enlisted to fulfill. We are just a stepping stone, and sure enough, this act of redistricting is stepping on all of us. His raw ambition would be embarrassing if it weren’t so harmful and painful.
Just a few months ago, State Senate President Bill Ferguson strongly recommended against redistricting in what seemed like a principled stand. But through steadily applied pressure, we’ve watched a transformation that has revealed a shameful moral flexibility. I guess an act he described as a threat to democracy isn’t important if it’s costly to his political longevity.
It appears that his fellow Democratic Party legislators feel the same way. Their commitment to liberty is as pliable as their fiscal restraint.
One-party rule, political purity and ideological alignment are almost complete, driving the state into the next level of crisis via a dearth of democratic principles. While only half of voters are registered as Democrats, liberal power brokers seek complete control. Moore already governs a state without a single Republican in statewide office, and one that enjoys a Democratic supermajority in the House of Delegates and the State Senate. Maryland hasn’t elected a Republican for U.S. Senate since 1980.
But that’s not enough! They envision stripping away the last vestige of opposition. They strive for a Maryland that is unchecked and imbalanced. Nothing will deter a governor who wants to make a national statement, even though it runs counter to his gubernatorial oath and the flourishing of a population that is already struggling and suffering.
Just a quick note to each legislator who votes for a new electoral map — you will be permanently on the record for voting against American values. You will be taking a stand in opposition to your oath. You will be ignoring the well-being of your constituents. You will be prioritizing power over principle. You will be just as bad as the political opposition you claim to detest.
Never again will you ever be able to espouse the virtues of liberty. Instead, you will become an adversary to democratic principles as you void our votes. You will become a cautionary tale of crass cronyism and political pandering. You will lose any remaining ounce of credibility while your moral standing sinks faster than Maryland’s economic indicators and the well-being of our great state.
John Teichert is a retired brigadier general and the former commander of Joint Base Andrews. He writes and speaks on leadership, innovation and national security. His activities can be followed at johnteichert.com and on LinkedIn, and he can be reached at teichert@alum.mit.edu.
