The lesser of two evils

I was thinking about elections today, and how I make my selections in the big races. I pick the lesser of two evils. I also vote almost completely along party lines. I explained this to my mom once, and she thought that was really awful. She thought that one should pick a candidate that one really believes in, but on a national level, I think that's too idealistic. For local elections, you can find a really good person, one you might want as your friend even, one that epitomizes your views. There are thousands upon thousands of locally elected officials, so there's more diversity. More importantly, they're less connected to their parties, so they can afford to be more independent. No one's really watching what Joe Blow in a town in rural Michigan has to say about some law that only makes sense to rural Michiganers. Also, they don't need huge piles of money to run their campaigns. Granted a little money helps, but the way money factors in is exponentially smaller (that's my thesis anyway - is this true?) Thus, they have less need to kiss their parties' and large corporations' asses. Granted, they may owe John Doe, wealthy developer, a few favors, but for the most part, their guiding force is their constituants, and their own moral and politcial views.
However, when politics moves to the national level, party leaders, and contributors are heavily invovled with a candidates' campaign. Democrats owe certain companies and industries big time, and Republicans have certain companies and industries that they have to kiss up to too. Thus the voter herself must also take care to cover her butt. There are some issues that neither party will budge on, and if that issue is important to you, you'd better vote for the appropriate party. There are a few moral/hot-button that each party is really polarized on, and if any of them really bothers you, you vote accordingly. Democrats on a national level PROBABLY: will not overturn Roe V. Wade, will be slightly more environmently friendly, will favor sanctions and mediation in international conflict, etc. Republicans on a national level PROBABLY: will try not to raise taxes, will favor free trade vs. fair trade policies, will be more supportive of faith-based and other charitable organizations (via tax breaks, etc.) than broader-based national social welfare programs, etc. And actually it's probably a lot more specific and petty than the examples I just gave. So you decide which party would cause the grimmer future (in your eyes) and vote for the other candidate. Or maybe you even LIKE the vision of one party......but the two party system makes this pretty rare. And the candidates' personality traits don't really matter as much as you might think. Charisma and personal charm may be helpful (or detrimental) in certain international situations, but to me, they're non-factors in national elections. What good is a puppet with charm and charisma? Instead, look at who's pulling the strings. Chances are, you won't like either option. So you pick the one you hate the least.