Here’s how Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s lone Republican in Congress, reacted to the latest federal charges against the leader of his party: “Indicting political opponent candidates during a presidential election is what happens in banana republics and Third World countries.”
This is typical Andy Harris, defending Donald Trump no matter what crimes the former president is alleged to have committed. Harris never met a Republican talking point he didn’t repeat. You’d have to dumpster-dive his social media comments to find an original thought.
This time, however, I was struck by two terms he used in his Tuesday night tweet: “banana republic” and “Third World countries.”
First, regarding the latter, enlightened people try to avoid that term nowadays. It’s antiquated and offensive. “Third World” had its origin during the Cold War, but it harkens to an earlier time. It conjures up days of empire, with stiff-collared Victorians sitting in the shade of a pergola, sipping Pimm’s and chatting about how superior they are to the “poor devils” of the colonies. It’s a term oppressors used to describe the territories they oppressed. The Associated Press dropped it, and so did other news organizations.
Most of us have jettisoned once-common words and phrases that demeaned whole groups of people. It’s called growing up and realizing that the society around you has changed. Among the tossed baggage: “Third World.”
So its usage in 2023 by a member of Congress sounds obtuse; it marks him as a guy who looks down on the world from the cracked tower of American superiority.
But it’s Harris’ usage of “banana republic” that is really offensive.
In his tweet about the indictment against Trump for the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Harris claims this kind of thing — prosecution of a sitting president’s leading political opponent — only happens in “banana republics.”
He apparently thinks we have joined the ranks of small, fruit-exporting nations with tin-pot dictators in lavish military costumes and jack boots.
Harris’ thinking is so upside down, so wrong, it’s hard to get your head around it, but I’ll try.
First of all, in “banana republics,” any investigations of a sitting president’s political challenger would take place without probable cause of a crime. Charges could be completely fabricated.
That’s not the case here. There’s plenty of evidence that Trump knew the election was not stolen from him and yet he continued to push that lie right up until the mob assembled for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. There was a congressional investigation that arrived at that conclusion. You can look it up.
In “banana republics,” a dictator can do anything he likes. He can file charges against a political opponent.
Not the case aux Etats-Unis.
If the president tried that in this country, career attorneys in the Department of Justice would flip out, the press would expose the president’s actions, and we would soon see impeachment proceedings.
In “banana republics,” there are probably no special counsels who conduct investigations independent of the nation’s ruler, and I doubt you’ll see grand juries reviewing evidence.
Most important of all, there’s no due process for the accused.
In the worst imaginable caricature of a “banana republic,” political opponents would be summarily jailed, exiled or executed. If they get a trial, it’s just for show.
But, look, if Andy Harris wants an example of a “banana republic” in our recent history, I humbly offer these points:
Had members of Congress met at the White House to discuss Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud and possible ways to overturn Joe Biden’s election — as Andy Harris and other Republicans did in December 2020 — that would have been the wild stuff of a “banana republic.”
Had the Trump-incited mob of Jan. 6, 2021 prevailed — had police taken a walk and not defended the Capitol — we might have seen violent mob rule instead of the rule of law. We would have seen Trump clinging to the presidency despite the will of voters and, for the first time in our history, a disruption in “the peaceful transfer of power.”
Fortunately, that did not happen. The Capitol police defended democracy. Members of Congress were grateful, and the House voted to honor the police who fought the pro-Trump mob — all, that is, except Harris and 20 other Republicans.
In an actual “banana republic,” members of Congress aligned with Trump — and that includes Harris — would have voted against certifying Biden’s election, knowing full well that claims of voter fraud were bogus. And, of course, that’s exactly what happened after the chaos of Jan. 6. Harris and 146 other Republicans voted against certifying Biden as the winner.
In a “banana republic,” the mob might have attacked Vice President Mike Pence to keep him from allowing Biden’s certification.
Good thing that did not happen, and that Pence is still alive to testify in Trump’s federal trial on the Jan. 6 charges.
In this country, the defendant gets to face his accusers. The prosecution must convince a judge or jury that the defendant is guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
We praise the ideal that “no man is above the law” just as we embrace “innocent until proven guilty.”
That’s not the stuff of a “banana republic.”
That’s a “government of laws, not of men.” That’s still America.
Rep. Harris, I hope this has been helpful.
