Re: If someone votes for labor at the next state election, are they retards? srsly.
incentivation said:
The Democrats existed prominently for 25 years. As for Europe, proportional representation is the norm.
But the Democrats never aspired to be anything more than a moderating force between Labour and Liberal - quite the opposite of the Greens. They also had little in the way of substantial policy or ideology which differed significantly from Labour or Liberal but would nonetheless be popular.
To assume they were similar enough to the Greens for the Greens to suffer as similar fate is ludicrous, not to mention statistically stupid (i.e. you've seen one third party crash and burn, but that says nothing about the rate at which this happens - whether one in 10, or one in two. To make predictions about the future without such knowledge is mighty arrogant.)
And yeah, Europe has proportional representation. So does the majority of Australian elections (as in, all upper houses, and a few lower houses - Tasmania and ACT). So if that was your justification for the failure of the Greens it doesn't make much sense. Especially since the Greens have already started getting seats in the lower houses that have preferential voting instead (Queensland and Victoria from memory).
Not to mention that Canada has first-post-the-post voting yet it manages to to have 4 or 5 significant parties. As, I believe, does New Zealand.
BTW, well done on quoting Chairman Mao in your sig. You can't get much lower.