There's a third choice: work to stop the motor of the world. The bad guys already have the field: they're called Republicans and Democrats. Thanks to both of these groups, we have an ever-growing federal debt of over $17 Trillion, and the elected leaders are now open about which laws they choose to uphold, and those they will simply ignore.
Boehner must be held accountable for his 180 turn on the debt ceiling. In six months, he's gone from talking about a "whale of a fight" to complete capitulation.
America cannot be saved until Washington DC has crashed and burned.
You are correct with that, and with the rest of your post. Please bear in mind that my argument is limited to our choices on election day (that the less damaging of two choices is the less damaging choice that will buy us essential time). With that in mind, you will probably agree that there is no 3d choice. I think Norm's problem with my argument is that he also wants to argue we have other more definitive choices. We do, but not via the ballot box on election day.
As for holding Boehner accountable...the only mechanism appears to be to vote him out of office (see BJ Clinton) and many of us don't even get to vote on that. Of course, it is particularly galling that after acting in so many instances as a non-Republican, he will retire comfortably on our tax monies.