A Republican Picnic
Republicans in Maryland are excited! Ever since their candidate for Governor in the 2014 election, Larry Hogan, won with 51.6% of the popular vote, they see a very real chance to turn this bluest of blue states quite a bit more red. Having been somewhat infected with this enthusiasm, my wife and I have become involved with the Republican party’s Maryland District 14 organization. Last Sunday they held a picnic at idyllic Brighton Dam Park, and since my wife had gone to Miami to visit her mother, I went alone.
While eating our hot dogs with beans, potato salad, and cherry-peach pie, we all had a chance to chat with a number of local candidates to Congress. Two especially stood out. Â
The first, Amie Hoeber, had been Deputy Undersecretary of the Army under Reagan, and is running for Congresswoman for Maryland’s 6th congressional district. Having been in the Army in my youth and having some concerns about national security, I very quickly found myself in conversation with her about a number of subjects. First, after I talked with her about my experiences in Tay Ninh province, Vietnam ( I had my Vietnam Veteran baseball cap on, which quickly labeled me), I found out she had visited some of the same areas I had been sometime after the war, particularly around the Parrot’s Beak. From there I asked her what she thought of Russia’s recent commitment of troops together with Iranian soldiers in Syria, and discovered she had some of the same concerns I had. She was quite knowledgable about the de facto alliance between Russia, China, and Iran, and the problems we have with our anti-ballistic missile systems in facing this threat. Next, we started to talk about the Chinese hacking of major U.S. computer systems, and I started to describe the post I wrote in which I discussed that hacking in the context of whether or not China is a threat to us. She then exclaimed, “You wrote that!, I read it and it is very well done.” Needless to say, that made my entire week, even if she was merely being gracious in her evaluation! Someone out there is reading what I write!
The second very impressive candidate was Mark Plaster, a candidate in Maryland’s 3rd congressional district. A tall imposing man, Dr. Plaster is a medical doctor who worked for twenty years as an emergency room doctor, during which he served as a volunteer on medical teams treating people in Vietnam, the Amazon villages of Peru, the barrios of Rio de Janeiro, and in Sudan. The Plasters helped build a hospital in Sudan and are currently working on one in Kenya. Volunteering for a U.S. Navy Reserve commission, he was deployed to Iraq as the medical officer in charge of a shock therapy platoon serving the 1st Marine Division. In the summer of 2008, Dr Plaster volunteered to return to western Anbar province to serve with the 2nd Marine Division in fighting the Sunni al Qaeda terrorists who were the predecessors of todays ISIS. Quite an impressive man and not your usual politician. One of his most passionate causes is the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. Another big issue for him is the limiting of government regulation that is strangling small businesses. He particularly mentioned opposition to the Dodd-Frank Act that is destroying small regional banks and making life very, very hard for small business.
Republicans are both excited and serious about their chances in wresting control of Maryland government and Maryland’s congressional delegation away from Democrats. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
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