Symptom of the Disease: New York’s 23rd House race

All politics, are no longer local. With the coming of the information age, broadband internet and online credit card processing, we’ve entered into the blood sport of manipulating United States House and Senate races in far-away states and districts of which we have never been, nor will likely visit in the future. Is this a good thing?

Whether going national is a valid technique to win local elections is not the issue. I’m perfectly happy to support conservative candidates far and wide by providing encouragement, spreading the message and even tossing a few dollars towards the campaign coffers, but the concern should be why we would have to do this in the first place. Do you know?

This is not new, nor is it unexpected. When Congress and the Executive Branch, with judicial support, incrementally take more and more power from the people and the states, individual House and Senate races become just as important – maybe more important – to the controlling statists inside the Washington D.C. beltway, as the local voters charged with making their choice for representation.

This friends, is simply another symptom of the disease. We get involved with far-away local politics because the representation from far-away places can put the screws to us. Because the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Rangel, Frank and – goodness grief – Franken, have so much power to manipulate the system, we must get involved and fight to protect our liberty and freedom.

After some thought over the weekend, I can’t figure if the extra cash flowing in from outside New York’s 23rd will have made a difference to the outcome. Sure, the cash and national attention – most likely not wanted by those living in the district – offers a sexy story since it’s an off-year special election at an interesting time. Everyone seems to want to use this election as a measurement of the national mood when it comes to health care, cap and trade, and the economy.

That’s probably a mistake, but who am I to tell.

One thing I’m pretty confident in predicting is that the turnout in the 23rd should be pretty high tomorrow. The other fact worthy of note is the district has voted for the Republican candidate since the 1992 election. The previous Republican office-holder, John McHugh (R-N.Y.), won the last three elections with 71 percent, 63 percent and 65 percent of the vote in 2004, 2006 and 2008 respectively.

Without Doug Hoffman (Conservative Party) in the race, the seat was probably safe for any Republican candidate with less than three felonies on their record, but I think this race can be a teachable moment for party stalwarts like Newt Gingrich who seem to imply – with everything they do lately – that conservatives must moderate their position to win elections.

I’m not moderating my position. I choose to make events, politics and the economy a teachable lesson myself, not accepting the premise of many stupid questions and anecdotes spewed by liberals, and move forward to promote conservative principles.

Until power is returned to the states and the people, the old GOP guard will find more and more people contributing to candidates across the country who they believe support their own values, simply due to the nature of the beast created by our own.

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

1 Comment

  1. Anne-EH on November 2, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Good one Steve. 🙂 =^..^=
    Goes to Free Republic shortly. :)=^..^=



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