I think it might be the other way round. The conjuncture is hardly encouraging -- pessimism of the will is at least understandable and human. But history is not over -- optimism of the mind is called for as long as one has a mind to think with.
Perhaps however this is a somewhat sterile dichotomy. Whether optimists or pessimists, we have to trudge on planting one foot in front of the other. The only question is where we plant 'em and why. Leaving Jenna Jameson for even a millisecond to help elect a Democrat seems a very poor and unfruitful use of a millisecond.
> 1. The Democrats will not go away, wither away,
> disappear, or otherwise do our work for us if they
> lose the next election....They will just shift further right again,
Indeed. And what will they do if they win? Answer: the very same thing! Conclusion? Left as an exercise.
> 2. The masses are not quivering on the brink of left
> wing revolution; the people who are organized to take
> advantage of a political vacuum want things that you
> don't even want to think about, theocracy --
> "dominion"
Really, we need something a little more nuanced here. "The masses?" Who dat? And yeah, the dominion types are motivated and committed, but not really all that numerous. They're a chimaera bombinans in vacuo -- and the void is, very greatly, of the Democrats' creation.