WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When you do that, the ONLY THING YOUR VOTE DOES is to inflate the "legitimate mandate" of the liberal Democrat victor, as if "everybody" just loves what he stands for.
Everyone who thinks this stuff needs to stop should vote FOR a candidate in the general who would act to PROMOTE limited government conservatism, EVEN IF that candidate is an off-party ("third" party is misleading because the Dem and Rep parties are functionally ONE party) with little chance of winning.
That way, your vote SUBTRACTS FROM THE POPULAR MANDATE of whichever liberal wins, the Democrat or the Republican.
Voting for a Democrat is as stupid as voting for a liberal Republican, and EVERY BIT AS DESTRUCTIVE.
When you vote for something, you had better vote for whatever it is you want to win. People who weren't elected aren't the ones causing problems -- the ones causing problems are the ones who were ELECTED. So ANYTIME you vote, you should ONLY think in terms of what will happen if your guy WINS.
We are in this mess because people fail to consider what they are voting FOR -- they're so enmeshed in this too-clever-by-half game of voting "against," of attempting to sending a ridiculously cryptic message expecting the powers that be to read some other motive into your vote.
Then when what they voted FOR in order to vote "against" and "send a message" gets in office and enacts his liberal agenda, things go sideways. ELECTED politicians are ultimately the source of this mess, so when we vote, we must ONLY vote prepared to be accountable for what our guy will do IF HE WINS.
Voting in terms of what the other guy will do if he wins, is PROVEN to be a destructive, losing strategy.
The only thing that counts is what you vote FOR. Period!
Destruction is the purpose - the gop needs destroyed - they are a cancer on our nation.