Are the Greens and the Independents Up to It? (October 4, 2010)

Thomas Friedman in his column in the Saturday edition of The New York Times quotes Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond: "We basically have two bankrupt parties bankrupting the country... with all the vested interests that have accrued around them...  They cannot think about the overall public good and the longer term anymore because both parties are trapped in short-term, zero-sum calculations."

Professor Diamond was of course referring to the Republican and Democratic parties but might he as well have been referring to the Coalition and Labor?

or falling between...?

And Mr Friedman adds: "We have to rip open this two-party duopoly and have it challenged by a serious third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street [the big end of town]..."

We live in hope.