...] Bartlett posts today at Crikey on the political prospects of The Greens as a third party in our ‘two party’ system. In his (always insightful) analysis he makes mention of [...

Recall Gandhi’s famous quote: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

The Democrats never made it past being portrayed as the fairies at the bottom of the garden. The Greens, however, are currently hysterically described in the media with words like “insane” (despite being clearly on the same side as the public on issues like global warming, whaling, etc; and looking far more sensible than the neo-liberals on economics given US free market capitalism is melting into a puddle as we speak).

The Greens are into the “fight” stage. Interesting times ahead.

Andrew wrote: “It all keeps making me think it would have been far better if the Greens had merged with the Democrats in the early 1990s, broadening that base by combining the better elements of both parties.”

More likely, we’d have got the worst of both worlds: both parties wiped out by Meg Lees betrayal of voter intentions on GST in the Senate and no leftwing parties left in Australia today.

...] Bartlett posts today at Crikey on the political prospects of The Greens as a third party in our ‘two party’ system. In his (always insightful) analysis he [...