After reading ZNet for years from Australia and Latin America and agreeing with just about every word written, I have an important issue to raise with my American cousins.
 
And that is, why is there so rarely any discussion about the formation of a new leftist political party in the USA?
 
If I could, I will tell a short but happy story about the situation in Australia.
 
At the moment the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is in Government, and for translation purposes you can read “Democrats”, while the Liberal Party is the Opposition. For Liberal Party you can read “Republicans” noting that by a darkly humorous twist the conservative party in Australia is called the “Liberal Party”
 
The abysmal situation in both countries is that the traditional party of social democracy has quietly abandoned its beliefs over a long time, and the whole debate rushed to the right as a result. However, down here an alternative left party has emerged, called the Greens, that after a slow start now regularly receives between 10%and 15% of the vote in state and federal elections. This vote does not translate directly into seats in the lower house of Parliament (the place where Government is formed) because of “first past the post” electoral laws in lower house seats, but it has translated into a strategic bloc of votes in the Australian Senate (similar to the USA Senate) where candidates are elected proportionally to the vote received.
 
This means the left with about 15% of the national vote has about 12% of seats in the Senate, and given the delicate balance between the major parties, this is enough to block Government legislation if the legislation is also opposed by the Opposition. Given that Oppositions generally oppose Government legislation this means the Government needs the support of the Green Senators to get anything through the Parliament.
 
And this means the left has a voice and a vote in national politics! This is incredible, and if you stop to think about it, hugely tactically significant.
 
We are not reduced to campaigning on issues with megaphones from outside the tent, begging right wing ALP politicians to show an ounce of social democratic decency, but actually have a say in the formation of policy and the law. Just as importantly we have a public moral voice on issues such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, environmental policy, labour rights, taxation, gay marriage, migration, education, welfare, privatisations etc. is backed by about 15% of Australians.
 
The implications of this are enormous and very positive in just about every sense.

For a start the ALP is under pressure from its left flank and must decide whether it is to return to its social democratic roots or embrace a centre right ideology that is likely to end in electoral annihilation. Then strange new alliances are beginning to emerge between the Greens and previously conservative rural electorates who have themselves been abandoned by the neo- liberal policies of the Liberal Party. Other cosy relationships between unions and  the ALP career structure are also being re-examined. But best of all, there is a contest of ideas that the conservatives must respond to, which often makes them appear very foolish and contradictory.
 
The benefits of this new situaton are apparent to everyone who believes in progressive politics with perhaps the greatest thing being that the Green vote has increased at every election over the last 10 years and this process is not going to stop!
 
Which gets me back to the USA where the abysmal situation seems to be that the left has no voice inside the formal political system at state or national level and very little ability to effect outcomes. The analysis provided by ZNet writers is great, the campaigns run from outside the system seem to be creative, and I assume the left is a live and kicking in the USA, but where are the results?

My question is to all of you who write and contribute to ZNet is this:
 
Why is there no alternative to the Democrats?
 
You all know they are no good, that Obama is not one of you, that the wars are continuing and the banks have been saved while the rest of the country goes to the dogs and the rest of it, but still there is no alternative.
 
As an open question to my American cousins I would like to ask: Why, why, why? What is going on and why is there no alternative party? 


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