Looking back, that would imply you think/believe history would have been the same, or at the very least similar, had Al Gore won back in 2000 instead of GW Bush...

While I agree that practice seldom lives up to promise, I still think there's a difference to be had with one direction over another. Voting against, as Tom and Robotic put it, isn't necessarily a bad way to go. It's how I voted in the Canadian election this spring.