"Judas settled for four-thousand nine-hundred and seventy dollars less."
"They didn't have no dollars in them days."

That's from my favorite Western.

I guess I'll try to be brief...

Voting as a means of self defense is at least morally defensible. Whether or not it's practically effective is a question of strategy. Aside that meta-point, I think the most cogent, intelligent and downright clever column on this subject is one by an anonymous writer using the alias Szechuan Death;

http://www.strike-the-root.com/71/death/death1.html

As he says, at best he'll accomplish nothing or next to nothing, and at worst he'll be the one holding the bag when the socialist schemes of yesteryear start falling apart around our ears. Then 'free market' policies will be blamed for things socialism and extensive regulation caused (I think now of Scott Bieser, who is also an anti-voter, who penned a cartoon to that effect) and the cause of liberty will endure an incredibly harsh setback.

As I see it, in this particular instance, it would be best if Paul didn't win, but did make a huge splash of profile in the media. They'd know who, and what, they ignored, and what it cost them. At least, if I were a hopeful optimist I'd think so. Chances are he'll be ignored and that will be that. The free market and libertarianism will, of course, be blamed. George W. Bush will be the one billed as the cause, and the Cato Institute, which cozied up to this administration and its retarded/psychotic policies, will be more than happy to assist.

I can't really defend the practice of vying for electoral office on the practical level. It's a waste of (very expensive) time. If one is opposed to it on a principle level, one has no cause to it...The whole thing is a mess. The best I could see one doing is monkeywrenching; throwing weight behind a hopeful candidate (as in, one who gets one of the Republican/Democrat party nominations) that would actually cause the whole chain of bad news to crash into the station that much faster, and let everyone know what a virtuous, altruistic social democrat he was! And how much he cared about family values, too!