Why I Refuse to Vote Along Party Lines

Some people have questioned me about my stance on voting Republican if Hilary gets the nomination over Obama. Well, it's simple. When it came down to the current three candidates, I did some research of my own (something that I feel most Americans no longer do). When it comes down to it, regardless of what you think may or may not be important, the next president of this country MUST be able to mend fences, not only in this country but abroad as well. The Bush administration has done a lot to soil our reputation amongst other world leaders. I remember back in 2003 when people were saying who cares if other nations don't like us. Well, if other nations liked us, we would have more support for our efforts in Afghanistan. We would have more support in curbing Iran, the real danger in the middle east. When it comes down to it, no matter how hard we try to deny it, we need the rest of the world just as much as they need us, maybe even a bit more.

So, the next president has to mend fences. That's why I throw my support with Obama. He is the best person, out of the three to go out there and rebuild our reputation amongst other world leaders. He has the greatest potential to cause other nations to regain their confidence in us as a world power. He believes in working with everybody to get stuff done, regardless of where they come from. This is exactly what America needs at this crucial point of our existence.

McCain, well, he talks a mean talk but he has proven in the past that he too has the ability to work with members on the opposite side of the aisle to get stuff done. His foreign policy might be a bit modeled after Bush's but it would be a bit better than Bush's than any improvement would be a great improvement.

That leaves me with Hilary. While I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, she is too much of a polarizing figure to get anything done domestically. Republicans really hate her. Conservatives really hate her. It wouldn't work out. Now, that was my initial reasons for not backing Hilary. Then she cried.

She used pity to gain votes in New Hampshire. Then she used her opponents message of change. Then she vowed to disband OPEC and to support the gas tax relief plan (which would only save us 30 cents per gallon but with summer coming, prices would rise much higher than that so it really wouldn't do much good anyways). You can't disband OPEC because they are their own countries, countries that happen to be sitting on the world's oil reserves so they have the right to control oil supply and prices. Just because we are the world's leading consumer of oil doesn't mean we have any right to tell the sellers what to do. And, if you want to find a solution to the rising cost of gas, you should do more than relieving the gas tax for this summer, with no way to stop oil companies from raising the price of gas by the amount of the gas tax. They figure that you are use to paying that much for gas, why not make even more of a profit. A coalition of economists have come out to say that the gas tax relief plan is a bad idea. When told to Hilary that economists didn't like the idea, she said “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists because I know if we did it right ... we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.” (Story Here) Does this mean she doesn't even have a plan developed yet? That's what it sounds like to me. There are a lot of other comments and views that Hilary has disclosed that I dislike. So, she is the least qualified person, to me, to run this country.


The problem is that this country is more than just the land of the free and home of the brave but also the land of ignorance. Voters will refuse to vote for Obama because he is black, or they believe he is Muslim or because his name is close to Osama's. Don't believe me? Then why are stories like this (read here) popping up? When I read news stories about how Obama is unelectable because of his race, or news figures are bashing him because they believe he is Muslim, I begin to wonder what exactly was so wrong about the comments of Rev. Wright. He hit a nerve with this country, but also proves a point. America has a huge race problem and because of ignorance on all sides, it is a problem that is here to stay...