Common Sense For New Hampshire

The moderator cut it short so everyone could go home and watch the Giants so I didn’t get to speak as much as I had hoped to, but I think I did pretty well.  I got great responses from the (kinda smallish) crowd both during and after the debate. 

I thought I was going to be shaking like a one-man earthquake up there, but actually once it started I felt great.  I could have gone on for hours (with smoking breaks, of course).  I’m much more interested in politics than I am in football.

In the past, my strongest urges to run for office always came while watching others debate.  If I had let my public shyness (and awful habit of forgetting peoples’ names) stop me from running this year, and instead was in the audience watching the others debate last night, I would be kicking myself in the butt right now.  Nobody was saying the things I, and apparently a good portion of the crowd, wanted to hear from our political leaders.

Here’s my opening remarks.

Thank you

 And I’d like to thank The Chamber and The League for inviting me.

I’d also like to thank the other candidates.  Everyone’s been very gracious to me. Nobody’s attempted to keep me off the ballot, or out of the debate, or been mean to me in any way.

And I thank all of you.

My name is David Schneck.  I’m 53 years old and I write auto parts catalogs for a living.

My wife and I have lived here since 1993.

We have 2 daughters who both go to St. Rose Grammar School and they’re the reason I’m here tonight.

I’m really the opposite of a politician. I’m uncomfortable socializing.  I hate parties and I’m nervous speaking in public.

So I may not be the ideal messenger but I’m so worried about the direction our society is taking that I feel I have to stand up and do something.

Our civil life has become the war of all against all, a society where everyone tries to live at the expense of, and control the lives of, everyone else.

The right to live your life the way you want, and the right to enjoy the wealth you yourself have produced means little nowadays.

In pursuit of safety we are destroying freedom and in pursuit of fairness we are destroying justice and I’m here to do something about it.

When you work, you are trading an irreplaceable part of your life for your pay.  That money belongs to you every bit as much as your life itself.

Every time one of our leaders comes up with some good idea they need you to pay for, they are saying that somebody else has a greater claim to your life than you do.

And every time they try to control your personal lifestyle choices they are saying that they know better than you how to live your life.

Well I’m not smart enough to know how you should live, or how your money should be spent.

But I’m smart enough to know that nobody is smart enough.  The only one who could possibly know what’s best for you……. is you!

I don’t want to be your leader, I want to be your pit bull.

You lead.  I’ll watch your back.