BE PART OF THE COALITION OF THE UNWILLING.

I've been so encouraging readers.  Here's Reason's Matt Welch, making the same argument.

Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. If you reward your party for nominating people you don't like, chances are very likely that will happen again, sooner rather than later. There is a contradiction in complaining that two-party choices seem to get worse every four years while still voting reliably for one of those choices.

Yes. The so-called binary choice is only a binary choice if voters vote with the expectation that other voters are treating the choice as a binary choice. In the states and districts that skew strongly one way or the other, if you're going to be disappointed with the outcome anyway, at least vote for the choice you want, rather than vote the Nash strategy

.Just because you despise a major-party presidential nominee—trust me, I know the feeling—that doesn't mean your choice is limited to supporting his or her major-party opponent. Using your vote strategically in states where the outcome is certain gives you at least the remote possibility of positively influencing your own team's future behavior.

And who knows—if you stop despising your own nominees, maybe one day I will too.

You'll get better nominees when the party establishments have incentives to provide better nominees.