As I understand it, the incumbent in NY didn’t go through a primary process. I’ve always maintained that primaries are where you take your philosophical stand, and if you lose, you close ranks in the general election.

This race in NY seems more like a case of the local party ramming something down the throats of the people. I could support either strategy here — voting for the independent who represents your actual philosophy, or trying to add to the Republican party’s numbers to create a majority. It’s a unique, one-off situation that is substantively different from routine, ordinary elections elsewhere in the country. [However, if the Republican-Democrat split was so close that the NY election was the key to regaining majority control of the House, I’d hold my nose and vote for the party, even if it meant re-electing the incumbent in that district. Then I’d use the next two years to lay the groundwork to challenge her in the 2012 primary.]

Contrast this with the governor’s race in NJ. The Republican and Independent candidates are threatening to siphon off enough votes from each other to re-elect Corzine. The independent candidate had an opportunity to make his case in the Republican primary. I don’t know the particulars, but if he ran and lost he should step aside and not allow Corzine to be re-elected. If he never ran in the Republican primary, he’s a coward who wouldn’t face the same voters he now wants to siphon away from their party’s candidate. Hoping that NJ ends up like the Buckley NY state senatorial race in 1970 is more of a wish than a strategy. Yes, the independent party conservative could theoretically win (just like I can theoretically win the lottery). But “not impossible” is not the same thing as “likely”, and this is no time to be handing the Dems an easy victory in an important state like New Jersey.

What does a conservative do who is living in New York’s 23rd congressional district?

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/10/19/an-acorn-friendly-big-labor-backing-tax-and-spend-radical-in-gop-clothing-by-michelle-malkin

Take care, Phil.

The impact we had and are still having is profound. Life change stories and the legacy they are leaving at the highest levels in our country and in the man in the street levels are stunning.

The opposition was more overtly intense. Rocks, tomatos, threats, beatings, intimidation, theft of personal possessions all in the guise of “you are a Christian and we are teaching you to turn the other cheek and to be humble.”

The same belligerant spirit is in those opposed to truth but it is only more velvetized (if I tell you where this concept comes from, the “thought police” will fine me for being racist.

Same logic as before was presented to an advocate of abortion for medical, social and family harmony reasons. Over a period of 4 years I waited to go for the jugular. When on a trip “From Here to There” I waged war for the mind and spirit of the advocate. A profoundly moving event of profound proportions. My efforts were effective in stopping the carnage, slowly but effectively.

When you call a man into the steet make sure your ‘pistola’ actually is loaded and works. As Doc did during the days of true gun fights. Don’t focus on the duster when the man you face down slaps leather. Focus on his eyes and aim for the center of mass.

PS – Earp was in 41 gun fights – accord’g to legend – and never suffered a wound. Many were faster but his commitment was to (almost hate to say it)shoot to kill, not demonstrate speed.

I’m going to be generous and assume that Jack’s-Off cited remarks come from one too many IED encounters while “traveling in the middle east”. Either that, or he’s just an idiot. Take your pick.

Anyway, just to help Jack’s-Off and on memory on the subject, here’s a couple of things I actually said when I counseled against throwing your vote away on a third party candidate. See if you can pick out the passages that may have triggered Jack’s ass-backward thoughts:

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2008/03/31/no-obama-none-of-the-time/

In a world where you can believe what you want to believe because you want to believe it — and your beliefs can be shared by others who want to believe what you want to believe too — there’s no room for genuine dialogue and debate. Obama is post-racial, and will produce “change.” Demonstrate that he’s chummy with a race-baiting bigot, or just another Chicago machine hack who cuts cozy deals with shady real estate developers, and you get at best a shrug, and at worst the non-sequitur “Bush lied about WMD in Iraq.” If Obama shot Mother Theresa while holding up the First National Bank on live TV, about 60% of all registered Democrats would still vote for him because (a) he didn’t really do it despite the overwhelming evidence against him, (b) he’s for change and the country needs change, or (c) Bush lied about WMD in Iraq. The other 40% would vote for Hillary instead, but only after she offered the VP slot to Obama because — to quote Joe Biden — he’s clean and articulate. And anyway, Bush lied about WMD in Iraq.
I wish I had the solution to re-instill some sense of reality into the political debate in this country, but I don’t. The problem isn’t limited to the political Left. Some of the people reading this essay who identify themselves as Conservatives will focus only on whether I or others are “conservative-enough” to lay claim to this designation. Others will ignore everything else I’ve said to affirm the existence of man-made global warming, since I mentioned it in passing earlier in this essay. Still others of all political persuasions will launch into a personal attack on those who disagree with some arcane point tangential to this conversation. Only a small portion of readers will actually ponder what I’ve said and refute or support it on its merits.

Things will change only when reality slaps us in the face again, and we no longer have the luxury of playing in the fantasy worlds of our own creation. The same people who supported “torture warrants” in the aftermath of 9-11 now decry the lack of due process afforded to non-uniformed military combatants captured in the Middle East. Slam another plane into a skyscraper, set off a bomb or two in a major American city, and the people today who condemn warrantless wiretaps will clamor for the political heads of those in power who “didn’t do enough to protect us from our enemies.”
Watching this spectacle unfold will be the American public who, except for the hardest of the hard-core kooks, will at least temporarily return to the real world and look for real solutions to very real problems. Their only hope is that in the intervening time we haven’t elected a bunch of kook-supported clowns to office who wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to confront a real problem other than to pander to the world community, or talk it to death with meaningless rhetoric.
But hey, if such a situation does one day arrive, as long as our new leader can make a good speech, or represents the correct race or gender, we should all take comfort in knowing that at least the wrong Conservative didn’t make it to the White House.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2008/10/07/how-john-mccain-will-lose-the-2008-election/

A few weeks ago I wrote an article listing ten reasons “Why Obama Lost the 2008 Election”, ranging from the hidden racism of rank and file Democrat voters, to Bill and Hillary’s not-so-hidden desires to see Obama lose in 2008 so Hillary could run again for president in 2012.
In an almost textbook example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, John McCain has managed to transform the political landscape in less than five weeks into one that no longer favors his candidacy, but may actually be preparing the way for an Obama presidency. …
Unless McCain has dramatically changed his losing ways in that debate, the only real hope he has now is that enough Republicans and Conservatives want Sarah Palin to remain on the national scene so they can carry him over the finish line in November. It’s a hell of a way to run a campaign.

Have you tried working on the ACLU?

This is like playing tennis with someone who does not play by the rules of tennis. You play striclty by the rules and they make all the adjustments they can to win.

There are other rules which govern the courage to walk into the teeth of the Lion and win the war for the ideologies which have made America great.

For example, the laws of aerodynamics can make an airplane overcome the rules of gravity for a period of time. In such a principle are the rules which allow the Conservative to wage war with a different set of rules and thus, “drive the arrogant tennis player from the court.”

One of the great travesties of the political makeup in our day is that the men in leadership on both sides of the spectrum have had an operation. In Sax’s book, The Irritable Male Syndrome, he has a section with the phrase, “the castrated American male.”

The men in the coffee shop who listen to fools make jokes about incestuous rape are outraged by the loss of power to deal with this stuff.

The loss of outrage at the systmetic elimination of opposition to ideas and government direction is an expression of having been mesmerized by the prevailing mood which is anything but masculine.

Yesterday, I spoke with 6 citizens who hold a fairly liberal concept of government. I treated them with respect, expressed interest in their opinions and then gently drew them into a discussion of Moral Absolutes/Universals and the impact on American Government. They became fascinated with the ideas of “we hold these truths…”.

My primary goal was to bring them into an undestanding that there is an Absolute true Truth which they can sink their teeth into. They plied me with questions and the interchange was dynamic.

The interchange was with the purpose of introducing them to God who wrote the Universals into the understanding of MAN and to explain why Jesus Christ is the Truth, the Way, the Life.

Our discussion began with the political and moved to the internal motivation of the spirit in MAN. We will have this conversation again.

They left with two expressed understandings: a fascination of the self evident truths and application to our present government direction; and a deep fascination of the claims of Christ upon their lives.

In a true sense I was a sojourner into their arena, but never once did I compromise my position nor did I insult them for their convictions or deface the Image of God in them.

Again my challenge to Intellectual Conservatives, is to go engage the liberal in an informal way while graciously identifying their inconsistencies and hypocrisies before their families. The disconnect between persoanl ethics and public ethics is the most profound hypocrisy of the Left.

They have money and power to isolate their families from their public policies and the dangers inherent. They willingly create vast protective systems for themselves and expose the populace to the worst of dangers.

You go for the jugular when you begin to discuss the loss of integrity in their lives with their familes and offspring. This is the road to bringing the liberal to a conservative position. In another culture the pharse would be, “you speak with forked tongue,” or in the ethnic culture in which I was raised, “you are two faced.”

I have used the above paragraph concepts for 50 years to bring adult males and females to a conservative position in their religious values. This then leads them to conservative political values.

The power of bringing the Liberal into the arena where men who have had a deep hatred and have expressed the most horrendous violence toward each other, and who now live in harmony is the most powerful and deeply convincing Truth to convince them of their errors.

On the coast of B.C there is a retreat center where a hydro electric dam generatesw power from 1000′ higher elevation and at a distance of 1 mile. In the darkness of the nite, one can stand on the deck and see in the distance a 6 volt dome light indicate the operation of the power system.

When the light shines in the darkness those who are looking can see the light. Shine brightly in the forums of darkness.

Go for it! (sorry, can’t resist) ::grins::

The Rev.