Why this Independent is voting for Obama

To start off, before I get the "Obamabot" label thrown at me, I hate the idea of a two party system. For a couple elections when I first became old enough to vote, I used to vote Republican without thinking. That's the way we were raised. We were taught that Democrats used to be OK back when they supported segregation and a "white, Christian nation" but they had been taken over by people who wanted to force sodomy, abortions and higher education on everyone. Once I managed to break out of that brainwashing, I started voting third party or Democrat most of the time. In fact, I think in almost every election since 2000, I have voted for at least one candidate that didn't have a "D" or "R" by their name. One year, I even convinced a number of people to write me in for Congress against a Republican who was running unopposed.

This year, I will continue that tradition of voting 3rd party but I am not going to do that when it comes to the presidential selection. I know that in the state of Louisiana, a vote for Obama is pretty much wasted because of all of the people who despite having their jobs destroyed by venture capitalists like Romney, will still vote for that slick-haired vulture. Venture capitalists destroyed the Fruit of the Loom factories here that used to employ thousands, but now sit abandoned with weeds growing up through the cracks in the crumbling asphalt where hundreds of employee vehicles once sat.

I'm not going to tell anyone that they should give up their plans to vote for Rocky Anderson, Jill Stein or Gary Johnson and vote for Obama instead. However, hear me out on this little rant...

Ideally, there would be 3, 4 or 5 parties out there and government business would be conducted through a series of compromises that would allow individuals to conduct their daily lives with government there as a backup, not a lifeline. Companies would have little to no influence on government and politicians would do what is in the best interests of their constituents, not their billionaire sugar daddies.

The thing is, that isn't going to miraculously happen between now and November. Writing in Ron Paul or voting third party this time around is like going to the highest stake poker table in Vegas with your future on the line and pushing all in with the first hand which just happens to be 2-7 offsuit. That analogy doesn't really work though because you statistically have a better chance of winning doing that than the "no chance in hell" possibility that someone besides Romney or Obama would somehow gain enough support between now and November to pull out a shocker.

In addition to that, what good does a person like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein do us in the White House if they don't have a single independent supporter in the House or Senate other than Bernie Sanders? If you thought the GOP hated Obama, imagine how hard they would try to destroy someone who stood alone with little to no support from either side of the aisle.

The reason I am voting for Obama this year instead of Gary Johnson or Jill Stein is that while a vote for them fits the idealism I once had when I stood outside the polls on my 20th birthday with a Ralph Nader sign, I am pragmatic enough now to know it won't change much. Even then, I knew my one vote for Nader wasn't going to magically sweep him into the White House and overthrow the 2 party system once and for all.

I have never been delusional enough to say "both parties are the same" and refuse to vote based off that idiocy as many people in the Occupy movement (which I support for the most part) have done. I understand that you build a political movement by starting small, winning local elections, building a base, moving to the state level, then national. It doesn't work by starting at the top and working down. No matter how idealistic and unique a politician is, one person alone is no match for the powers that be. If you don't like the choices you have, work to change that but don't choose the pill which means the death of what is left of the middle class over the pill that upsets your stomach.

In the mean time, I am voting for Obama because while he isn't perfect, I recognize that the alternative is far worse. Think of it as choosing between heartburn and terminal cancer.