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But you have not listed all logical options. Why? You read my post, right? I specifically advanced the idea of a third party solution. No, third party doesn’t solve for every race. But surgically applied to specific races, it has real potential.

Now, before you offer the knee-jerk “that’ll never work” canard, consider the true dynamics of NY23. You had a good (if uncharismatic) conservative Republican candidate who was deliberately excluded from consideration by the state party, BECAUSE he was conservative, in favor of a raging lib wearing an R, all for the supposed pragmatic value of bragging rights over the R label beating the D label. Politics reduced to branding wars.

Therefore, when Hoffman ran with the Conservative Party, he was really running as a Republican in exile. In Illinois, the conservative third parties are likewise composed of, mostly, Republicans in exile. Some of us have been told to our face we are not welcome participants in the Republican machine, primarily because we are too conservative, and will therefore never get the backing of the Combine. We are too conservative why? Because we actually still believe in those fundamental, inalienable rights to life and liberty, and the Constitution that guarantees the protection of those rights. It is as Reagan said. We have not left the Republican Party. It has left us.

That is why we need, above all, to establish a venue for political speech of the most penetrating sort. I believe the best mechanism for that, between now and November, is to mount a well-publicized third party campaign that will fully engage the people of Illinois in discussing and deliberating upon the core issues that make conservatism superior to its alternatives, not the least principle of which is the right to life.

So add this to your list: d) vote third party or independent on a premise that this is a redux of NY23, but with an earlier start and therefore a higher likelihood of success. Like the song says, if we can do it in NY, we can do it anywhere.