"I'm just astounded that a bright guy like B. would argue that through voting, we can "stave off the worst of the lot of ruling bastards."
Chuck,
Well, remember in France when a lot of the pop. got apathetic (or, by maybe your definition, "smart"?) and didn't vote at all, only to see a surprise one morning when the vicious bastard Jean Marie Le Pen threatened to actually become pres.? That mobilized a lot of folks to get out there to at least keep THAT douche nozzle out, even if no one favored the other folks.
Overall, yes, in the US, the Dems and GOP are two factions of the business party. Even Moore goes into this w/ Hillary getting a ton 'o money from private health corporations. I have no illusions that anyone in our current God-awful rogue's gallery of Pres. candidates before us for 2008 are saints, for example.
But I'm not talking about just voting strategically in elections for people at that high of a level -- there are also votes locally on taxing land owned by churches, etc., not just on putting people into office. There was a local issue put to public vote on whether massive estates and far-flung ranches, big tracts of land, technically owned by churches, ought to be exempt from property tax, since the land was religiously-affiliated on paper. I thought, "Fuck no, they shouldn't be exempt!" And I voted against it. Of course, this is Texas, so those in favor of exempting land held by churches from taxation won the day by something depressing like 75% to 25%.
There are some minor differences at the higher levels, too, though, ones that, when filtered down to the public, do have an effect. Had Gore won in 2000, would the US be in Afghanistan? Probably yes. In Iraq? Probably no. Admittedly, it's hypothetical, but the GOP is so chock full of incredibly assholian ideologues that I just can't sit there and pretend like it really ain't gonna matter if some anti-gay, anti-prochoice guy gets in, while the other doesn't. Those little things do have effects on average people, it's not just hopelessly abstracted stuff.
And none of it replaces the need for grassroots level community organizing or consciousness-raising, which should be done anyway.
I've grown way more pessimistic over the past few years so I honestly really don't care if thinking things like this means I'm not a purebred anok (by whoever's definition, be it Bakunin's, Bob Black's, or whoever else). I try to go by what I think are good anti-authoritarian principles in any event, regardless of others' opinions. Like I said, if the above makes me not an anarchist, fine, so be it. Call it what you will; the actions and principles mean more to me than trying to earn a coveted label in others' eyes.
-B.