Rep. Harris is shameless in his lies about paid protestors

Andy Fowle, Cambridge Indivisible Co-Founder and Co-Chair

Rep. Andy Harris, Republican for Maryland District 1, has doubled-down on his claim that protestors are being bused in and paid.

That's rich coming from the leader of the Freedom Caucus, which was invented whole-cloth by the Club for Growth and the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. This is the mean-spirited Tea Party movement that popped up in the wake of the first black president's inauguration.

It's a classic example of projection, because, in fact, Americans for Prosperity DID pay protesters and bus them to protests across the country during President Obama's time in office. I vividly remember the blatantly racist posters, unleashing a giant wave of bigoted hostility to outgroups and ultimately led to a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

Be assured it is yet another BIG LIE trotted out by whacky and radical right-wing billionaires, like Elon Musk, who now own much of the "mainstream media" and many in Congress, including Harris. He is VERY quick to fall in line with every talking point they make up. This is just the latest lie echoing across ultra right-wing media outlets.

So be aware of the lies they tell about people who challenge them, because they often betray their own tactics -- tactics that are dastardly, denigrating and divisive.

In truth, my wife and I started Cambridge Indivisible more than six months ago when we retired here from California, where we also ran an Indivisible group with an outstanding reputation in Los Angeles.

We are not paid. We are longtime volunteers for the organization, which is genuinely grassroots. Indivisible is a non-profit organization that runs on small-dollar donations -- nearly all of which come from the local Indivisible volunteers themselves. It is real people giving up their time and money to challenge the sociopathic agendas of the unfathomably rich.

We chose Cambridge because it is a jewel of a watertown with a real community that has been nothing but super-friendly and inclusive. We absolutely love living here. Not that it should matter, but my family has deep roots on the Eastern Shore going back at least 100 years. My grandmother was born and raised in Centerville and retired to Queenstown. I grew up in the Metro DC area in the '70s and '80s and have come to the Eastern Shore to visit family all my life. As a Navy brat and journalist, I've lived all over the country, including Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. In my family, and probably yours, there is a legacy of farmers, firemen, fishermen, bankers, cops, veterans, lawyers, electricians, judges, artists, teachers, doctors, nurses and more. We come from many different religions and races and cultures. This is common in the Americas and, I believe, our real superpower. In the U.S., the freedom to move is sacrosanct for good or ill. There are no "come-heres" and "from-heres" if you're not indigenous. In fact, there are no obstacles between the states at all. Are we not free?

I encourage everyone to really look at Rep. Harris' record and what he has actually done for the people of the Eastern Shore. By design, like the Freedom Caucus itself, it ain't much.

There will come a time when regular, well-meaning people who voted for Harris and Trump will start to recognize that they are already feeling the damage of the self-serving and exploitative agenda of MAGA billionaires.

And we will welcome them all, because we, the people, are indivisible.