It takes a huge degree of privilege to just shrug off a Democratic loss. The damage done by more conservative justices alone will be tremendous. The imperial powers of the presidency will continue to get worse at a higher rate. Economic problems will get worse. Global warming will remain unaddressed. If someone like Paul was elected, which thankfully is highly unlikely, we would see a dismantling of not only the civil rights structure that prevents the worst kinds of discrimination but also the elements of social democracy that make our current economic and social order viable. Our country has already tried laissez-faire economics--it doesn't work. Getting rid of drug prohibition, ending the Iraq War, and devolving Patriot Act style repression to the states (Paul only objects to these as federal powers, not state powers) would not make up for any of this. And really--getting Paul is highly unlikely. A vote for Paul is more likely an effective vote for someone (i.e. the GOP nominee) as bad or worse than Bush in terms of the war, civil liberties, and drug policy. Mitt Romney has said he wants to "triple" Guantanamo and one of his main foreign policy advisers is deeply involved with Blackwater. Giuliani wants to expand the powers of the presidency and go farther with repression in the name of anti-terrorism. McCain is the only one on that side (other than Paul) who isn't completely insane, and he supports the war and was instrumental in helping Bush pass the 2006 Military Commissions Act that effectively legalized most forms of torture at the will of the president, and created military courts with no due process. Any Democrat is better than any Republican and a third party is not going to make a whit of difference except to direct votes away from the two major parties. Real change will only happen outside of the electoral process or by changing the existing parties from within, either of which takes a long time and doesn't absolve anyone of the responsibility of voting for the better major party candidate in 2008.