Gary Johnson speaks at LSU. (Credit: Daniel Brooks)

I’ll first begin with an apology to those of you who are voting for the first time this November. On Nov. 6, if you were to choose between a Coke and a Pepsi, that would be a far more profound choice than the one you will make in the voting booth.

I am voting for the RC Cola of the election, Governor Gary Johnson, and I am ending my soda analogy there.

On the issues, Gary Johnson is the candidate we all wish were the nominee of either Team Blue or Red.

He was a two term Republican governor of New Mexico, a blue state. He took them from a budget deficit to a balanced budget and left office with a budget surplus. According to National Review, New Mexico had the best rate of job growth in the country. Most of this was accomplished by simply vetoing the bad ideas to come out of the state legislature in New Mexico.

In addition to governing with fiscal sanity, Johnson was the first major politician to oppose the Federal Drug War. He also supports marriage equality, bringing the troops home, and ending the TSA. The best chance Gary Johnson has in this election is for voters to be honest with themselves. No one is excited for another four years of Obama, and no one is excited for Mitt Romney to replace him. Deep down, you know that no matter who wins, things aren’t going to change.

We can be honest and say Obama was far from the change we were all hoping for. Our cool, pot-smoking, blow-sniffing President still refuses to even have a conversation with voters on ending the Drug War. We think the wars are over, but the Pakistanis dodging drone missiles would beg to differ. Where are those new green jobs we were all promised? The man did sign Obamacare into law, so let’s give credit where it’s due. Obama cracked down on the insurance and big pharmaceutical companies by signing legislation that forces every American to do business with them. Was that the change we could believe in?

But what about Mitt Romney?

Here is a guy whose idea of rebellion is drinking a Diet Coke. Most Republicans talk a good game when it comes to small government. Mitt Romney doesn’t even do that. He wants to balance the budget by not reforming Social Security and instead increasing military spending. He thinks if we axe funding for Big Bird, we’ll never have to borrow another cent from China. He thinks Obama’s global drone war doesn’t go far enough. If Obama or Romney wins the election, SWAT Teams are still going to raid the homes of marijuana users. You’re still going to be felt up at the airport. The prices on consumer goods are still going to go up. Drones are still going to blow up the indigents of “insert country here.” And if the economy doesn’t pick up, we’re all going to have a hard time finding a job to pay back all those student loans.

If you are against those things, how are the higher ups in either major party supposed to get the message without you voting accordingly?

Wasting your vote is voting for someone you don’t really believe in. We don’t get bonus points for pragmatism. Our Baby Boomer relatives have been patting themselves on the back for voting for the lesser evil since they were old enough to vote. And $16 trillion in debt later, here we are. It’s time for new voters, and younger voters in general, to vote for some idealism. It’s time to quit listening to the so-called “wise and aged” and make up our own minds about what we want this country to be. I’ve made up my mind. I am voting for Gary Johnson.