Your approach has a lot going for it, also, and if it makes you sleep better I'm not going to criticize it as a personal choice.
Oh, I don't know that I'm an "idealist".
But I am firm in my convictions...
And sooner or later there comes a time when you gotta draw a line somewhere.
I was 19 when ratification of the 26th Amendment enabled me to first register GOP. That awesome right must've made quite an impression on me because I've always taken it very seriously. It's just that in the 33 years since then, the GOP has continually drifted leftward and I grew tired of being sold-out and back-stabbed.
I cherish my vote too much to disgrace it with a "protest vote" for Mickey Mouse or some other such idiocy. But as long as I can at least write-in the name of an actual person whose opinion I respect, it doesn't even matter to me whether they're running or not. I'll won't throw away my vote on somebody who has lost my respect.