Political ideas today seem to have lost their capacity to inspire and political leaders their ability to lead. If the Greens lose our political idealism we will just be seen to be converging to the ALP and Liberals, like they have done already (i.e. converged). I say this because of the Greens apparent "compromise" in the latest round of the ETS and GHG debates. I don't believe we have compromised anything but we must be careful.
Far-reaching changes involve titanic political struggles and progress means the defeat of entrenched forces (neo-liberalism). It is naive to expect otherwise. Power structures are complex and multi-faceted but in our society tends to be localised to the business community. Staying "in-line" means the government has to pursue policies that keep "the market" (a.k.a big business) happy e.g. via fiscal discipline, low tax on the wealthy, restrained unions and the big one...."free" trade.
With a lack of inspiration in political leaders and policy, people vote on the basis of personalities. If we show that we are truely different on all fronts and highlight our Green alternatives it is more likely that people will be inspired because we do have unique policies compared to the traditional parties.
In the 2005 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes 47.8% of people agreed with the statement that political parties do not give voters real policy choices.
