Matt Snyder For President

Government, I figure, is like your mail. When I say, "government," I'm not talking about the people... the president, the Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, or the state and local office holders... I'm talking about the principle of being governed. We all have our ideas of how we would like to be governed, and that "government" is like having pieces of mail out there being sent to you.

Some pieces of mail are quite important to you... you need them... you need to know what information they hold. Most pieces of mail don't really represent life-changing decisions, but you keep an eye on them just in case they might hold some news that you might find helpful or... harmful in any way. Other mail is just junk... it may or may not even pertain to you, but you have the option of perusing it or not.

Whether your beliefs put you on the far left, far right, or anywhere in between, your satisfaction in our nation's governance is represented by these pieces of mail... and we certainly hope that the news we receive, with each piece of mail, is what we were hoping we'd find. Sometimes it is... sometimes it's not.

The actual people, however, who make up our federal, state, and local governing bodies are the senders of that mail. Most of the time, and usually depending on which sender, the news isn't vitally important to us, so it may not matter much what news they send. Maybe you were hoping for some left and you got right. Maybe you expected some right and received a bunch of left. This is all between you and the people who send you your mail. If you don't like the news, our nation has a way for you to address your grievances.

I know, it's another analogy... but this analogy is a bit more fun because we have to remember the link between what happens in government... and the public. If not for our 1st Amendment guaranteeing our privately operated media the freedom of the press, there would be no link between us and those who... tax us, protect us, create laws to govern us, spend our money, teach our children, or perhaps fail to do any of these things as well.

The media, in this analogy, is the crazy postman who only delivers some of the mail, some of the time, only when he wants to, and only to whomever he feels should get it.

As if that's not bad enough, sometimes he opens your mail erases some of it, adds his own comments to it, or changes some of the news altogether and then adds comments based on the incorrect information. We don't really have a way to address this situation, do we? How do we deal with this man-made fog?

Did anyone know impeachment proceedings have begun over Obama's use of war powers in Libya without congressional approval? This is the first I've heard of it-- our media SUCKS! I would think such a thing would constitute "news."

I like this one... thought it deserved another mention.

I have a challenge for all you presidential hopefuls: tell me what you can do for me, my family, my friends. I don't want to hear about your opponent's bad habits. I don't want to hear about their misfortunes, and oh so human behavior.
What I want to hear is what YOU have to offer. It's funny that you will spend billions of dollars bashing each other in the media, but you won't spend the money to tell me what makes you special enough to be called MY president. You work for ME... consider this a job interview. What can you do for the United States? Do you know? If you don't, your constituents will not either! Think about it, and get back with me:) Thanks!

Thanks for the challenge, Jennifer. It's pretty easy though. What I'm offering is to take this gigantic political monstrosity we call "Washington" and move it out of your way. Once the government's prying hands and eyes are off of you, you and your friends and your family will have the opportunity to become whatever your efforts will make of you. If you're willing to earn your keep, you'll be able to keep what you earn. If your desire is to smoke w**d and stare at the sun all day, you'll find yourself stoned, blind, and hungry with no means to feed yourself.

We've got enough people thinking they know how you should live your life. The politicians work tirelessly to put limits on your successes and boundaries on your possibilities. The president's job description is well defined in the Constitution. Yours is not defined at all. I think that's pretty great.

So that's my offer to you. I promise to abide by the duties prescribed within the law of our great land and nothing more. If there's something you want, I promise to protect your right to work your butt off and acquire it; and I promise to do my best to make sure some bureaucrat doesn't come along and take half of it away and give it to some lazy yutz who chose to smoke pot and stare at the sun all day.