You're making a dangerous assumption that one evil is lesser than the other.
Since it looks like it'll be John Kerry vs. George Bush, that's who I'll focus on. We all know about Bush; he resembles a Democrat in so many ways—no, strike that, he's so much more like a Democrat than even the Democrats, increasing the general budget at a rate 3-4 times what any Democrat president since and including Johnson has. And yet, the Democrats criticize him with wanting to cut government too much.
Kerry, on the other hand, has voiced support for fellow Democrat Fritz Holling's bill (S.89) which would reintroduce the draft. And his own record in Vietnam certainly makes one wonder if he would be any less warlike than Bush.
This really isn't about the "lesser" evil. This is about "my" evil. When Reagan was in office and started meddling in countries around the world, the Democrats decried it, and continued to do so in the Bush years; yet once Clinton was elected and kept doing the same things, they were all for it. This time, it was the Republicans who were coming out against it, even though they had no problems with it when it was THEIR guy in power. Now, it's flip-flopped again during George III's reign.
Also, look at Ashcroft. Yes, he's arguably done more for the erosion of our more precious rights than any other AG, but it's not as if Janet Reno didn't try. She just didn't succeed because she wasn't in the post-9/11 environment that Ashcroft is. But pretty much all of the stuff, the "enemy combatants," the stuff in the USA PATRIOT Act, etc. are all things that previous administrations have tried to implement before and been shot down because of the gross Constitutional violations they comprise.
It's also interesting that you rail against Thomas and Scalia, when they, along with Kennedy, have stood up for the Constitution and everything it stands for to a much, much greater degree than any other politician or Justice in recent history. In fact, they have stood alone in calling for the overturning of Buckley v. Valeo, for example, even though the Republicans are as much in favor of that "reform" as the Democrats and use it to their advantage whenever possible.
And would someone please tell me how our current situation would have been any different with Gore? Bush merely continued the policy with regards to terrorism and Iraq that Clinton did, and Clinton merely continued the policy of Bush before him (although you'll find precious few Democrats and Republicans who actually acknowledge that fact). So why do people think Gore would have been any different?
Whenever Republicans come out with dangerous legislation when they're in power, the Democrats decry it; but you'll notice they don't work to repeal that legislation once they're in power. It goes the other way, too.
No, there isn't the first bit of evidence that things would actually be any different under Democrats as opposed to Republicans. If the Republicans aren't giving you what you want, then the Democrats aren't going to either. The only way you'll have a chance at getting what you want is to vote for a third party candidate who more closely expresses your views. Anything else is just the same bull$#!7 posturing like what we see every year at the Super Bowl. Well, it's one thing if you cheer for a sports team you like; it's something else to show the same irrational exuberance for those who have power over all of us.
If you really care about science being taught properly in schools, and your rights to privacy and due process, and so many of our other precious freedoms that have been either abrogated or are in serious danger of doing so, then there is only ONE choice that will give you what you want: the Libertarian Party. That is the ONLY party standing up for freedom and the founding principles of our country. And it is the ONLY party that has proven that it will not waver or compromise on these issues, or do something else completely once they are elected. Our government needs to be, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, bound down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. Then, you wouldn't have to worry about bad or dangerous men getting into power, because they wouldn't have the power to do anything. But there is only ONE party that wants to get us there. Anything else, truly, is wasting your vote.
Go with the status quo if you want. But even if your guy does win, I assure you in four more years you'll be here harking about the same old thing.
But yeah, that's a classic.