from eddobloggo.com 

The big question asked from surprisingly far-flung corners of America this week: "What's your take on New York 23, Ed?"  Of course, the question refers to the special off-year election in the 23rd Congressional District here in upstate New York (not my district -- an adjacent one to the north).

It began as a three-way race.  A Conservative Party of New York State candidate endorsed by such Republican Party luminaries as Sarah Palin, a liberal Democrat and an even more liberal GOP candidate who, despite her ACORN connection and other left-progressive stances, was controversially endorsed by a surprisingly partisan Newt Gingrich before she suddenly dropped out of the race yesterday.

While there are many more conservative states than New York, most do not have a formal Conservative Party that appears on a regular ballot line.  In that regard, those of us who have always opposed the kind of out-of-control taxation, spending, social programs and social engineering that liberal New Yorkers have pioneered should consider ourselves fortunate that the Conservative Party of New York State exists. 

But we don't always have an alternative option to Republicans and Democrats in each and every state and federal election.  For every Ronald Reagan, Rudy Giuliani and John Faso that the CPNYS has backed, we have been co-fed Republicans like John McCain and Jim Tedisco. (Tedisco was defeated by Scott Murphy here in the recent 20th CD special election to fill Kirstin Gillibrand's seat vacated when she was tapped to fill Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat.  John Faso was defeated by the disgraced Eliot Spitzer in the state's last gubernatorial election.)

Why?  Because those candidates have represented the lesser of two or three evils to our so-called Conservative Party leaders.

Sadder still, Conservatives have never really changed any liberals' minds in New York. To the contrary, our elected R-C governors have been notorious for taking a left turn somewhere along the way in order to get themselves re-elected with the support of those all-powerful downstate liberals.  Nelson Rockefeller was the first-ever RINO.  More recently, George Pataki, elected as a Conservative, followed Rocky's liberal gubernatorial lead in order to remain in power.

It was a kick to be among the tiny number of New Yorkers whose C-Party votes helped Ronald Reagan carry our liberal state.  Ironically, if Conservative Doug Hoffman wins in the 23rd CD election on Tuesday it will be by a margin of votes that exceeds the meager 30,000 or so Conservative Party of New York State votes received by the greatest Conservative politician of our time, Ronald Reagan.

It is a kick to hear and read about people from the other 49 states -- plus many from my own state -- who never realized that there is a Conservative Party of New York State -- that are suddenly talking about the next "change" in America beginning right here in rural upstate New York.  Make no mistake, despite our relative proximity to the Greater New York City tri-state metropolis, this part of America is as much flyover country as is Kansas or North Dakota.

My take, therefore, is that liberal and conservative Americans alike are quite curious to know whether some third party -- any third party -- can reclaim the America that once existed as the "shining city on a hill". 

Taken from The Gospel According to Matthew 5:14-16..."You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hid." it is a passage that Ronald Reagan often quoted in his speeches to project his view of America as a beacon of freedom and hope in the world.

We will see this Tuesday whether the possibility of reclamation exists so soon after the light was dimmed by the smokescreen of hollow idealistic-sounding rhetoric. We will know whether Ronald Reagan's challenge has been answered a year from this Tuesday.

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