Dan Cox, the Republican nominee for the Governor of Maryland, and Gordana Schifanelli, the Lt. Governor nominee are, one could safely conclude, an unlikely pair. But, this is also an unlikely political cycle. Traditional, cookie-cutter candidates are not the flavor of the times. That this rather unlikely pair managed to defeat in the July primaries the heavy favorite and Gov. Hogan endorsed Kelly Schulz, speaks to the political mood of the moment. What is that mood?
Dan Cox, a native of Maryland — he was born in Tacoma Park, MD — is a veteran of running for a variety of local political offices, state and federal, mostly in the suburban Maryland region (8th Congressional District), and subsequently from more northern and western parts of rural Maryland. He currently represents District 4 (Frederick and Carrol counties) in the Maryland House of Delegates.
With his strong support for the patriotic and economic security America First Policy Agenda, Dan Cox caught the eye of the 45th President of the United Stated, Mr. Donald J. Trump. Dan has earned the much coveted 2022 election-cycle endorsement from Mr. Trump. He got a shout-out from Mr. Trump at the Wilkes-Barre, PA rally this past week.
Gordana Schifanelli, on the other hand, is an adopted daughter; she hails from Belgrade, Serbia, an ocean and 4,700 miles away! She makes her home in Queen Anne County, where she settled with her husband Marc Schifanelli, a former Green Beret, now retired from active duty and a practicing attorney in Annapolis. Gordana has an impressive resume of her own. She obtained a Doctorate in Economics from her home town University of Belgrade. Upon arriving to the United States she became fascinated with the “codification of liberty”, as she puts it, the enshrinement of liberty in a constitution. The fascination with liberty inspired her to pursue a law degree at the University of Baltimore. She was an adjunct professor at the US Naval Academy before taking a time-out to campaign full-time. Dan Cox is also an attorney with special interest in Constitutional Law.
It is at this intersection, and “intersectionality” being a thing nowadays, that these two unlikely paths crossed: the love of liberty. It is a theme that is threaded throughout their campaign, but more importantly, it is a passion that is notable when either or both of them speak. When liberty is at very core of one’s belief system, it spreads out in a centrifugal pattern — it reverberates through everything it touches from civil (and medical) rights to economics and education. In a free society, liberty is the “ground of all things”, noted a Nobel Prize winning economist.
I’ve known Gordana for a long while from the local “peninsula” politics. She has made a name for herself in the neighboring Queen Anne County in the fight for Parental Rights and de-politicization of the school curriculum. The fight was prolonged and intense. Gordana, a mother of three, is a passionate and relentless defender of non-politicized education. Having grown up under a socialist regime she is all too familiar with what “social learning” is: “brainwashing”, as she unabashedly puts it. She knows. She has lived it. Her husband Marc now serves on the Board of Education in Queen Anne.
Freedom, to both Dan Cox and Gordana is, at its most basic, “ability to choose” how you see the world, and how you wish to live your life in that world — it is “Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness — all subsequent versions and gradations are but varieties of this basic, fundamental value.
Liberty is an ever present theme in American politics. Liberty is, after all, an American Birthmark and an American Birthright.
Things ever-present can be taken for granted, get a patina of dullness about them, they can get dusty and settled with a non-enterprising status of a relic. From time to time they have to be jolted back to life, infused with new spirit and energy.
The Covid pandemic and the overreaching government response was such a watershed moment — a Road to Damascus moment for many Americans. Businesses were forcefully shutdown, and many were put out of business permanently when the “two week shutdown to flatten the curve” turned into prolonged closures. People were prevented from going to work and earning a living. Schools closed and millions of children were relegated to “remote learning”. Many schools remained closed for almost two academic years, causing undue developmental damage and learning loss. The Biden administration eventually mandated that citizens subject themselves to an experimental therapeutic/vaccine that has since been proven to be anything but “safe and effective”.
This government overreach and intrusion into our private lives was a watershed moment for many Americans, including Marylanders who were subjected to draconian stay-at-home orders. The liberty that we have taken for granted, the relic we dusted-off from time to time, like on Veterans Day, on Memorial Day, or the 4th of July, echoed like a voice in a twilight dream.
The spirit of liberty reawakened. That potent Benjamin Franklin adage, “he who would trade liberty for some temporary security deserves neither liberty nor security”, came knocking. For some of us, loudly.
Americans are once again choosing that fundamental value, liberty. The “stay at home” and obey “mandate-supporting” candidate only carried two counties in the state of Maryland.
The Democratic ticket headed by Wes Moore echoes, approvingly, much of what we have just lived through and rejected. The Democratic ticket promises much of the same for the future: mandates, dictates, more government control, and of course more taxes to pay for it all.
Dan Cox and Gordana Schifanelli are the liberty ticket for Maryland: political freedom, economic freedom, medical freedom, and educational choice, because “LIBERTY is the ground of all things”.
Tatiana Croissette
Former Chair, Kent County GOP
Mike Arntz says
Thank you Tatiana Croissette for your insightful analysis of the current Maryland Gubernatorial election campaign. You explain precisely why Dan Cox for Governor and Gordana Schifanelli will win and why no one should be surprised when they do!
Yelena Gakh says
Great essay on characters and programs of MD fighters for our freedoms!
Thank you!
Rick Skinner says
Unfettered freedom is as much a threat as is unwarranted governmental infringement of persona liberty. The old saw about the danger of yelling “Fire” in a packed theater remains the exception that proves the rule that your freedom to not wear a mask in the midst of a pandemic, for example, may keep you free but you may also infect and contribute to the death of others by spreading a deadly virus. Freedom is not license. Mr. Cox and Dr. Schifanelli provide a perspective, but they advance the individual to a status that makes civil society difficult to achieve and maintain.
Jerry McConnell says
Dan Cox is a disgusting right-wing extremist who exemplifies the racist, women’s rights cancelling, fact-denying Code of the Far Right. He’s also a classic example ( Andy Harris being another) of people obtaining higher levels of education— often advanced degrees in technical, medical, and professional fields — yet displaying limited intelligence and negative cognitive skills.
This enigma is apparently widespread throughout the Republican Party, as evidenced by the inability of that ilk to recognize the degree of nonsense they try to communicate as factual.
Cox doesn’t have a prayer in the upcoming election, thank goodness. At least the GOP national leadership knows when to back away from a crackpot who would only bring more embarrassment to an already humbled, disheveled organization.
Barbara Denton says
This is an excellent write-up on the Republican Candidates. If you support them please donate. The Republican machine in MD is alive and well and is doing next to nothing to support these candidates. It seems they would rather have a Socialist (Moore) and a Communist (Miller) running our state rather than candidates who will uphold our Liberty and work to drain the Maryland Swamp. We need a governor who will move this state forward in freedom not backwards in socialism. The Heritage Foundation ranks Maryland schools as the fourth worst system in the United States. Only New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC (which is last) are worse.
Is this what we want for our children? I do not think so. Support the candidates that uphold Liberty and the Constitution.
Tom hill says
Bless you, Tatiana, for those beautiful thoughts on liberty. As one whose father is berried at Normandy and having met Gordana twice and heard her speak once, I understand her passion.
Tom McCall says
Too bad they don’t have a prayer of winning. Demography is not in their favor. Too many liberals on the western shore will leave them unemployed. No chance and 1/10th of the funding. It is a blue state.
William Keppen says
Turn out the lights, the Party is over.
Judy A Wixted says
These are extremist candidates undeserving of our votes. Don’t ask me, ask Governor Hogan who called Cox a “QAnon wack job.” After the FBI executed a search warrant approved by a federal judge in Mar-a-Lago, Dan Cox made a dangerous statement to weaponize state police and the Maryland National Guard to stand against the federal government. He will push for a far-right MAGA agenda. How does one interpret that pledge? Is Mr. Cox ready to take up arms against the Federal Government? The way to defeat anti-democratic movements is for us to take up the office of citizen and vote against these extremists and bring friends to the polls and vote for every Democratic candidate. I will tell you that many of my Republican friends have told me that is their intention.
Carol Voyles says
Why are Republicans doing this?
They have not won a majority to elect a president since George H. Bush in 1988 and George H.W.l Bush in 2004.
Tim Quinn says
Cox and Schiffanelli represent fringe alt right views. Both are election deniers and Cox participated in the January 6th insurrection and Tweeted “Pence is a Traitor” as the capital was breeches.
Al Phillips says
As far as masks go, they’re useless. If you can smell cigarette smoke, or vehicle exhaust through them, they don’t work, since virus particles are much smaller than that. Besides, people can only spread a disease if they are infected with it. Mask mandates assume that everyone is infected, which isn’t true. Their true purpose is to provide another avenue to control the people.
Gren Whitman says
Cox sez he’ll fight the police state with state police.