Conservatives propose divided New York ALBANY, N.Y. Probably not since the Civil War has America seemed so divided as it is nowwith conservatives and liberals vying to shape the nations future. So, some New York conservatives are proposing to cut up the state along those lines into upstate and downstate largely self-governing regions. The November elections showed how strong feelings can run even in a normally blue state such as New York. Here, the more conservative upstate region overwhelmingly voted for Republican-Conservative Rob Astorino for governor. But upstate was trumped mostly by the strongly liberal and densely populated New York City and downstate counties. Liberal Andrew Cuomo was reelected governor for a second term. A number of disappointed conservatives are reportedly flocking to help push a proposal that would divide New York into upstate and downstate autonomous regions while retaining a token state governmentNew Amsterdam and New York respectively. Its going better than I thought it would be at this time, said John Bergener, who leads the New Amsterdam project. Bergener, co-coordinator of the Capital Region chapter of the Upstate Conservative Coalition, said the project website, http://www.newamsterdamny.org/, is being bombarded by more inquiries and potential volunteers than can be quickly processed. But more volunteers will lead to more volunteers, and besides that, media interest in the project has grown, he said. The website got more than 50,000 hits within a week and a half after the election. Conservatives and independents turned out in droves at the November elections against Cuomos policies and, no doubt, President Barack Obamas reign. Cuomo won with downstate and a few upstate counties, but by a slimmer margin now than four years ago. The son of the late former Gov. Mario Cuomo, Cuomo took only eight upstate counties while Astorino got 42 counties. Four years earlier, Cuomo won 37 upstate counties, and Republican Carl Paladino captured only 13. Cuomo defeated Astorino 54 percent to 41 percent statewide, but he beat Paladino 63 percent to 33 percent. Astorino is a former twice-elected Westchester County executive who cut spending and taxes. Gun rights, the state economy and regulations, Common Core, fracking, school choice, and life and marriage issues were some of the points in contention. The rationale of the New Amsterdam project is that upstate, which constitutes most of the state, is generally conservative with moderate liberalism mixed in and consists of small- to medium-size communities in rural and suburban settings. Downstate, which, in the plan, includes New York City in a total of nine counties, is much more liberal. So New Amsterdam would include all counties except New York, Westchester, Suffolk, Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Nassau and Rockland. In a nutshell, the plans involves a token state government limited to a 3 percent sales tax with an executive, legislature and judiciary and such agencies and laws that would apply statewide. Each autonomous region would have the same three-part structure as the state and agencies that would deal with three-fourth of the laws. Regional legislators also would be in the state legislature. Adoption of the plan requires amending the state constitution either by the state legislature passing the amendment twice, with an election of legislators in between, and putting it before the voters in 2017, or the people voting for a constitutional convention in 2017, as they are entitled to do by law. The New Amsterdam team will call on the public to ask county boards and state legislators to support an amendment. The main rationale is economics because upstate is being killed by high taxation, overregulation, unfunded mandates, bureaucracy and duplication, Bergener said. That includes regulations which apply to one region but not to the other, or are outdated. What we are trying to do is to give more power to the people at the local level, he said. Historically, such proposals to divide a state into regions or more states rarely gain traction. This time last year, this seemed like a pie-in-the-sky idea, but since the election the proposal seems like a viable option, Bergener said. Im 100% in support of secession !! The time is right ! 