I wish to serve the residents of New Mexico as the state governor. I need at least 16,000 signatures to have the state add my name to the ballot.

One of my friends recently told me that I would "... make an excellent Disney® cartoon character. That face! That voice!" I successfully (alas, temporarily) resisted the overwhelming urge to"break out in show tunes" as I contemplated the complement. In the cartoon universe nothing actually needs to make sense: the "people" who inhabit a cartoon world strive and struggle to exist in a world that is often irrational. The overall "meta theme" about life as a cartoon character is that one accepts the world the way it is and tries to change what has become out of balance and restore the equilibrium, perhaps in comical ways.

In the past year we have seen politics in the United States resemble that of a cartoon world's--- and evidence suggests this will continue for at least another year. It seems to me that what USA politics needs most at the moment is a Zen Buddhist monk to help restore some harmony in public service. A society that does not embrace and defend reality is a doomed society.

I accept the following convictions as self-evident:

• Democracies do not have leaders: they have employees in public service to their employers. It is the duty of our employees in public office to either obey us or resign.
• The second best government is one which governs least. Human behavior negates the existence of the best form of government: one that does not govern.
• The job of government is to ease suffering and facilitate the increase of each citizen's quality of life and standard of living. If governments refuse to do this, they should be dismantled--- they have no legitimate reasons to exist.
• It is ethically indefensible for a public servant to profit beyond what is required to meet basic needs. It is ethically inexcusable for a public servant to live "finer" than the people she or he serves.
• The best public servants are humble by nature, not by political expediency and not by pretense.
• The disuse of reason in the modern world is social suicide. Control of the citizenry by using fear as a weapon against reason is social suicide. The vilification of science and critical thinking is social suicide. To maintain the existence of a functioning, compassionate, kind, and health society, reason and logic must be applied to the public service sphere which we call "politics."
• It's a good idea to get politicians out of politics.