Election shows Maryland politics is a head-scratcher

Fifty years ago, there was no consensus that women should enjoy the same pay, rights and consideration as men. Pressed for an explanation, a Southern congressman drawled, "I've always thought of women as kissable, cuddly, and smelling good."

To which Millicent Fenwick, a Republican representative from New Jersey, shot back, "That's what I've always thought about men, and I hope for your sake that you haven't been disappointed as many times as I've been."

Today, issues that we thought had been settled in the 1970s are being re-litigated for reasons that are not entirely clear. Certainly, more people support women’s rights, racial equality, gay marriage and such than when these matters came to a head both in the courts and in the eyes of the public.

It’s almost as if we’re nostalgic for the battles themselves, and the reasons behind those battles are not so terribly important — anything to stoke our national addiction to anger. So instead of arguing over something interesting, like the designated hitter rule, we revisit the days when one’s worth as a human being was determined not by merit, but by race, sex, street address, lineage and bank account.

It’s like a time capsule back to 1776, when Thomas Jefferson had just written “all men are created …” and was still hunting for a word.

No wonder the electorate can be viewed as anything from mildly confused to downright schizophrenic. In the days when I did what passed for serious election analysis, last week’s Maryland primary would have driven me right up the flume.

Larry Hogan is wrapping up the most successful Republican governorship in Maryland since Lloyd Lowndes, and the eminently competent and qualified Kelly Schulz was teed up to carry the Hogan mantle and execute a "Hollywood Squares"-like block against a deep-blue General Assembly. So Schulz had to be a slam dunk for the GOP, right? Nope. Instead, Republican primary voters went with Dan Cox, an anti-truth Trumpist whose success made Democrats giddy because they believe that they are now so assured of victory this fall they can start measuring the governor’s mansion for curtains.

Race for governor:Dan Cox, endorsed by Trump, wins Republican nomination

Democrats even provided a primary tailwind for Cox with Brer Rabbit “attack” ads that advised GOP voters, whatever you do, don’t vote for Cox, he’ll stop abortion and protect gun rights.

This is part of a cringeworthy national strategy on the part of Democrats to bait Republicans into nominating loons on the theory that, this fall, Democrats won’t have a prayer against a normal Republican.

But Democratic meddling doesn’t fully account for what the Schulz campaign was calling ritualized, mass suicide on the part of Republican primary voters.

As statewide Republicans were celebrating their own destruction, like Slim Pickens in “Dr. Strangelove,” similar short-sightedness didn’t apply to Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, where GOP voters soberly chose their best hope at winning over the candidate endorsed by Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump Jr.

It feels strange to be calling Washington County’s Neil Parrott a voice of moderation — remember the good old days when some people thought Parrott was odd because he tried to scare women into thinking that Maryland law was going to incentivize men into crossdressing and peeking at them over bathroom stalls? Today that wild theory sounds as cogent and homespun as an episode of “The Waltons.”

Election outcome:Parrott gets rematch in Maryland's 6th Congressional District after primary win

That Parrott stopped short of trumpeting the whole QAnon, Stop-the-Steal salad bar earned him the endorsement of The Washington Post no less, which given Schulz’s experience certainly should have been the kiss of death, it would seem. Worse, Parrott acknowledged that Joe Biden is the president and condemned the violence of Jan. 6. To the stake with his campaign! Right? Not even close.

Parrott will now run against incumbent David Trone in a race that ought to make the Democrats very nervous.

Not to be outdone for freakishness, the most-watched Democratic primary (for the House) occurred between two Black liberals in Prince George’s County, which turned into a proxy war between two pro-Israeli special interest groups. Monty Python only wishes it could have been twisted enough to come up with that one.

Nor were the Democrats able to field a gubernatorial candidate transcendent enough to dominate the field, and as of this writing, a winner has not been declared by the Maryland Board of Elections, which apparently still counts on its fingers.

What does it all mean? Nothing, I hope, other than American politics is just as messy as it’s ever been. Were it not for the existential threat of climate change, it might all seem kind of funny. In Maryland, as elsewhere, politics is the sound and the fury that signifies something — we’re just not sure what.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Maryland primary election outcome leaves one scratching his head