Replacing the ALP?

Why get another piece of software if it has to run on an o/s that is riddled with problems? I welcome a new “keep the bastards honest” or otherwise interesting party, but I feel there’s more to it.

Real progressives come from every side of politics, and the Dems filled that gap quite well. The Greens just can’t appeal to the full spectrum of progressives. I vote Green because there’s no one else to vote for, but I don’t agree with many of their standpoints, and lift an eyebrow at their support for pro-natalist government policy when increased human population is the sole reason for environmental degradation. Seems to fly right in the face of everything they say they stand for.

There are plenty of progressives in Labor and Liberal parties, they just aren’t allowed anywhere near the policy-making room.

I saw the article and it did spark my interest as well. There is a genuine gap in the political sphere currently – and it is one that the previous Democrat Party would have filled (as someone said on this thread earlier).

Perhaps, rather than splitting this ALP as this seems to be trying to do, it is time for a similar Democratic Party concept to emerge. The Greens just aren’t in the game – far to fringe and not on the same planet at all for most people.

John Moulis said :

Every schoolkid has learned about how the party was formed under a tree in outback Queensland in the 1890s.

Really, I must have been off sick that day. Is that true?

John Moulis said :

I agree that the left side of politics is in disarray at the moment but starting up yet another “progressive” party will only fragment the labor movement and keep them out of government at a time when conservative politics is undergoing a revival.

The problem is, Labor aren’t really doing Left any more, they’ve crossed the divide into the more conservative side of politics. Real progressives now look elsewhere for their primary vote, merely ensuring that their vote exhausts at Labor rather than “Liberal”.

The Democrats would have been well-placed to take advantage of this trend, had they not self-destructed. The Greens are getting some of the spillover now, but the nature of them being part of the Green movement alienates some of the progressive vote. I think the Greens are trying to position themselves as more of a mainstream progressive party with wider policies than environmental ones, but it’s a slow road.

Mark Parton interviewed Justin Ryan on 2CC this morning. He seems well intentioned and fairly sincere in his aims but I really believe this is a leftish version of the Joh for Canberra push in 1987 where we were told that this new national conservative party led by Joh would sweep all before it and that the Liberals and Nats were history. 34 years later the only one confined to the history books is Joh himself.

Although the Liberals were originally the United Australia Party which in 1945 Menzies transformed into the Liberals and was able to defeat Chifley four years later and stay in office for 23 years, the difference with the Labor party is that there is a whole history and mythology about the party which streches back to colonial times. Every schoolkid has learned about how the party was formed under a tree in outback Queensland in the 1890s.

I agree that the left side of politics is in disarray at the moment but starting up yet another “progressive” party will only fragment the labor movement and keep them out of government at a time when conservative politics is undergoing a revival.

I won’t say that Justin Ryan is pushing shit up hill with his proposal, but it will take a lot more than a $3000.00 ad in a newspaper that sells around 30.000 copies a day to get any form of momentum going.