Yeah, you're supposed to elect the other major party. Who did exactly the same the last time they got elected.
One party wants to hike taxes on the rich. The other party wants to cut taxes on the rich.
One party has a pretty extensive health care reform plan. The other party would repeal that plan if possible.
One party wants to spend more on the military. The other party is trying to end wars.
One party keeps abortion legal. The other party wants to end that.
One party favors economic stimulus. One party opposes it.
One party favors using the fed to achieve full employment. One party believes in opportunistic deflation.
One party wants to invest in infrastructure. One party doesn't.
One party wants the federal government to support the states. One party wants the states to play a larger role.
One party favors an assault weapons ban and streamlining gun regulation. One party believes this is an infringement of liberty.
One party started a mortgage modification plan a couple years back and the other party launched a massive national 'tea party' to oppose it.
One party believes in fighting climate change. The other party fillibusters all such efforts.
One party believes in regulations on banks. The other party doesn't.
One party is in favor of abstinence only education and intelligent design. The other party thinks those are stupid.
Yes, there are differences, but not in the most important places.
The Democrats still fight together with the Republicans to maintain their monopoly of the political system.
They're still tied together with large business interests, and will screw people over on command just as easily as Republicans.
They still support the slow creep of legislation that dismantles the public's rights piece by piece, and violate the ones they can't dismantle indirectly with laws that are intentionally designed to be easily abused (Patriot Act).
They still support harsh punishment and suppression of whistleblowers and vocal dissent, and aren't past blatant lies to excuse their behavior.
"Tactical voting" is nothing more than a process of drawing shit out. So you get fucked over in smaller increments, making it less painful and obvious. That's not good enough for me.