While I agree in theory, in practicality I tend to disagree, because I take an outcome - oriented view of the voting process. At this point, one of two options are going to happen in this campaign.

But that's me, and I strongly disagree with Clay Shirky. As for Nader, the only criticism I can think of is to ask whether their vote got them closer to what they wanted. I regard that as a weird special case anyway, with a lot of failure points.

And of hell, there's the issue of down - ballot races as well; independents can and do win important regional and local offices.

And in any case, voting at all is much more proactive than not voting.