What Would Opposing Obama Accomplish?

Pivoting off the above debate, Ari Kohen wonders what critics of Obama's civil liberties record hope to accomplish if they won't vote for him:

At bottom, Greenwald just wants us to have the conversation about imperialism, the war on drugs, and our loss of civil liberties that he thinks we can only have as a result of Ron Paul candidacy. All of the other politicians embrace these things. And then, once we’ve had the conversation, something will happen. Perhaps a new candidate will emerge out of thin air. This one will be perfect and incorruptible, will always do exactly what (s)he promises, and will always fight the good fight on every issue important to every single person who identifies with the Left in America.

Or, what is more likely, we’ll have an election between Obama and Romney, and a whole bunch of people who voted for Obama in 2008 will decide to stay home in 2012. And then maybe we’ll be so lucky as to have President Romney.

Friedersdorf, on the other hand, believes that civil liberties issues "are bigger than any election":

As Glenn Greenwald insists, it is ruinously unhealthy for a polity to stop everything, every three years, for a lengthy election season in which life and death issues are de-emphasized, and everyone does their best to extol the virtues of politicians who are deeply flawed at best. Whatever the "print" world's voices do, election season is going to proceed; surrogates are going to make the case for and against the incumbent, and the jobs picture is going to be debated. There is an additional opportunity, even for supporters of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, to influence the Anderson Coopers of the world such that when the political debate reaches the rest of the country, it isn't as narrow as the Karl Roves and Rahm Emanuels of the world would prefer. As I press Sullivan, let it be said that he's helped expand the conversation, in just this way, on more occasions and more significantly than I ever have — and that even in this election, his insistence on taking Ron Paul seriously has helped broaden the discourse. Is it not equally urgent that the same broadening also occur in the Democratic Party, whose denizens are naturally inclined to uncritically rally around their incumbent?