It's not a waste of time.
If the platform "means very little at this point", why even publish it? It would be more honest for the (R)'s to do a press release saying something like, "We're better than the Democrats--just trust us."
Words mean something. Conservatives need to educate themselves on what their party stands for and take appropriate action where necessary.
So let's say you belive in most of the platform but you hate the Abortion part. You go vote for Kerry then? No, you are still going to vote for Bush...right? So my case is not folly.