I wanted to comment on the NY-23 race, Hoffman, and Scozzafava.  I am going to reference what I wrote previously the day after the last election.

So my advice to Republicans is go back to your roots.  Be principled proponents of small government, fiscal responsibility, national security, and social conservatism.  People want a balanced national budget.  The debt hitting 10 trillion scares the crap out of them and it should shame Republicans that it happened on their watch.  People want a secure border.  Physical wall, technological wall, they don’t care too much as long as there’s real security on our points of entry.  At the same time they absolutely want to share the American dream with every soul that wants to come here and make a new life.  Find a way to make both happen!

Most important though is trust.  Over the last eight years Republicans have squandered the public’s trust in them by not being who they said they were and who they were elected to be.  That will be the most difficult to regain.  It will be done by consistent stands on all conservative principles.

Some Republicans, and far too many political commentators, are shocked by the reaction of people to the NY-23 race.  They seem surprised that the Republicans in the district supported Hoffman over Scozzafava and “ran her out”.  I think many, both general public, Republican leadership, and political writers, have taken to the idea that Democrats and Republicans are no different than the Yankees and Red Sox.  You pick a side, wear your colors, and root for your team.  The problem being that conservatives do not feel that way.  Folks like me have no great care for the Republican Party as an entity only the principles we feel it has stood for in the past and should continue to stand for.  If it abandons those principles we will abandon it and not shed a single nostalgic tear.

There are three facets to conservatism, national security, fiscal policy, and social policy.  Every individual favors one facet over the rest.  The common thread though, the glue that holds the “conservative coalition” together is fiscal policy.  The one thing they all agree on is smaller government, lower national debt, and lower taxes.  It is that idea that holds the rest of the conservative factions together under the Republican banner.  Scozzafava was NOT a fiscal conservative and no matter what anyone says to the contrary that is why she was dropped by conservatives.  Her selection was just another item on a more than four year long and growing list of examples that Republicans have lost their way on fiscal policy.  If the leadership does not get it through their thick skulls and fast they will allow a third party to rise and either consume the Republican party or allow for a permanent Democrat majority.

I really am amazed at how they can miss the virtual panic people are in over the economy, national spending, and the state of the dollar.  There are people, sane and sound people, all over this country preparing with the utmost sincerity for the collapse of the economy and country.  They are desperate for the political leadership to hear their concerns and do something about it and the more they are ignored the angrier they get.