I was disappointed to read the recent Baltimore Sun editorial, “5 takeaways from our interview with Larry Hogan” (Sept. 26). Specifically, I was disappointed that former Gov. Larry Hogan was not pressed when he said that he has never supported a national abortion ban. Hogan knows that is untrue. Some Marylanders have not forgotten that it was a key part of his campaign platform when he ran for Congress in 1981. Hogan’s relatively recent assertion that he is a moderate clashes with his longtime actions. Based on those actions, not only is Hogan a conservative — he’s a “closeted” far-right conservative.

One way you know someone is a closeted conservative is if you cannot nail down where they stand on abortion. For example, after once expressing strong support for an anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution, Hogan spent years being wishy-washy on the subject — even as he acted in private to limit access. Now, Hogan says he is pro-choice, but Americans are smart enough to know that politicians say all sorts of things they don’t mean when they’re running for office.

I’m old enough to remember when candidate George H. W. Bush told voters, “Read my lips — No. New. Taxes!” And then, not long after getting elected president, he turned around and raised taxes. The thing about closeted conservatives is you can only really know what they believe by observing their actions. And Hogan’s actions while in office communicate loud and clear that, when it counts, he is a committed and demonstrative pro-life Republican.

Another way we can tell that Hogan is a secret conservative masquerading as a moderate is that he seems happy about the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ultraconservatives have been putting up a lot of wins on the board at the Supreme Court lately — that is, now that members of the far-right conservative legal organization, the Federalist Society, hold a supermajority of the seats. Since as far back as Ronald Regan’s time in the White House, his acolytes have been seeking ways to use America’s judicial system to roll back the clock on civil and social progress in America.

We know Hogan is one of them by the way he praises Donald Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court. Hogan is careful not to have a lot of good things to say about Trump, but he has nothing but praise for Trump’s Federalist Society appointments. That may explain why Hogan also appointed members of the group to state offices when he was governor.

Lastly, we know Hogan is a closeted far-right conservative by how he fawns over Reagan. People today may not remember how much conservatives of Hogan’s persuasion and generation loved Reagan back in the day. But before Trump, Reagan was the far-right’s Moses: the man chosen to deliver them from the “horrors” and “indignities” of an increasingly diverse, equal and inclusive American society. Reagan was a blatant and determined racial warrior who was committed to using the powers of his office to challenge and reverse the civil rights advances of the 1960s and ’70s.

Perhaps that’s why today he is so revered by people like Hogan.

Hogan’s strategic reticence about his hero on the campaign trail suggests that he now accepts the fact that most Marylanders don’t care much for Reagan. So, if you want to know what he secretly thinks about the former president, you will have to dig into the archives of his campaign website and Facebook page. In public, Hogan and his friends will do everything, including prevarication, to convince you that he is the opposite of a closeted, far-right, Reagan-worshiping conservative. But those of us who know Maryland history are not fooled.

— K. Ward Cummings, Baltimore

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