Much as I enjoy resolute efforts like Leo's (often helping us avoid the group-think trap, and otherwise, as here. forcing us to grasp nettles), it's the social democratic parties who've done it, I reckon. I'm no radical by disposition, and were it not for years of socdem fibs and betrayals of just about all I ever held dear, I'd still be a passionate ALP man.
As I said to Brad the other day, there comes the day you have to say, yeah, the Supreme Court matters a lot, but the socdems do this with malice aforethought every time; hold one morsel of social democratic principle up while they dissolve all the others.
And that morsel eventually goes, anyway. Labor used to hold up public health insurance while they slaughtered education. Now they're holding the twitching body of education up as they cave in on health! The choice they always offer is the slower death.
And here, as there, it is always they who initially open the gates through which the tories march later. Probably because, we wouldn't let the tories open said gates themselves ...
As someone said the other day, we're not the splitters! 'Tis our parties who deserted us!
Time for that second party, I reckon.
Cheers, Rob.