I choose neither

 

Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? Democrat or Republican?

To vote or not to vote?

I understand that it is my duty as a citizen of the United States to get in that little booth and just pick one come November. But I find it hard to come to a conclusion about if I actually want to vote for either candidate.

A good percentage of the campaign commercials out there right now are depicting each man as an evil, self absorbed, power hungry maniac. Let it be known that I'm not having this dilemma due to these hypocritical commercials. It's because I agree and disagree with certain parts of each candidate's vision for the future.

Let's start with Mitt Romney. To be honest, I find it hard to like him. I was raised in a Democratic home and I'm not sure if I'm biased or if I really just don't like his sense of humor. What with the whole, "47% of Americans are lazy bums who only rely on government handouts," thing. You don't insult half the country. That's bad strategy.

When it comes to his economic stance, I like him a bit more. He knows what he's talking about, I just need to get a handle on some statistics to be certain that his plans to decrease the debt will be successful.

President Obama made me cry. A good cry mind you, when I listened to his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention. I felt proud to be an American, I felt hopeful, I felt like voting for Obama. Now I'm not so naive that I'm going to vote for a guy because he can deliver a kick-butt emotion-filled speech. I need to know that he's going to take care of me when I'm trying to get a job after college, and overall set the course for economic growth in our country.      

I'll be looking at a few different topics, topics that I believe are crucial and important in my decision making process. 

Welfare:

Romney- Recipients should go to work immediately

Obama- Needs to do more for encouraging recipients to go to work and not be dependent.

There's one for Romney, I am definitely on board for helping the poor and less fortunate, but I think there are a lot of problems with our current welfare system. I've seen too many families buy endless carts of junk food with food stamp cards. While playing on their iPhones mind you. We need to be helping those who really need it, we need to be giving welfare to those who are going to be responsible with our tax payers dollars.   

Abortion:

Romney- Only legal in cases of rape, incest, or pertaining to a mother's health.

I applaud him for standing by pro-life, but you can't say "It's alright sometimes." The Bible clearly says that abortion is wrong. I'd like it if he were backing his beliefs 100%. He also has been known to flip-flop on these type of issues, depending on the vote he wishes to get.

Obama-  Pro-choice. No, just not okay with me.

Education:

Obama- His plans involve the goal of having nearly all Americans to receive at least one year of formal education beyond high school. He's spoken about how he will do the best he can to make it easier for every student to go to college, and not be in debt for the rest of their life because of their student loans.

My only concern is that there still won't be enough job creation when my generation wants to enter the workforce. 

Romney- When researching this topic for Romney, I didn't find a lot of answers. "He will equip state leaders to achieve the change that can only come from commitment and action at the local level. He will also ensure that students have diverse and affordable options for higher education to give them the skills they need to succeed after graduation." Sounds nice, but how exactly is all of that going to work out?

The environment: 

Obama- While he was in office he has more than doubled production of renewable energy from wind and solar, while investing in over 15,000 clean energy projects across the country.

Romney-Would cut funding for clean energy, including ending the tax incentive for wind energy, which could cost 37,000 American jobs. Meanwhile, he would continue providing billions for big oil companies. 

Global warming is real. We are using fossil fuels recklessly and foolishly, and there will be consequences. We need to treat the Earth God put us on with respect. I'm not a being a tree-hugger, I'm being practical. 

At this point I'm literally half and half. I know I can't have the perfect candidate, nobody's perfect. But I wish one of them would do or say something to solidify my decision, to tip the scale so to speak. 

I don't want to go in there and pick the wrong guy, what if he majorly screws up and I regret my decision? 

I've got about a month and a half to nail down who I'm going to choose, but to be perfectly honest I might write in Chuck Norris. He would get stuff done.

Philippians 1:9-10

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”