Election analogy

Thanks to quizzicalsphinx for pointing me at this rather good analogy for the current state of US politics.

Missing: one political party

(To avoid confusion, I'm talking about *Australian* politics here. Sharing names with US parties doesn't mean they're similar...)

Last Sunday, we were talking politics with a bunch of friends, and I suddenly found myself wondering: where are the Democrats? We have an election in less than two weeks, and I haven't heard a peep out of them. I'll admit to not watching much TV, but I read the papers, and I have plenty of politically-minded friends, and until I brought it up not one of them had mentioned the Democrats in my hearing. Have I missed something, or have they really sunk that far into obscurity?

I was reminded of this by an email from the Greens in which they expressed their annoyance that the Democrats are preferencing both Fred Nile and 'Family First' ahead of the Greens in the Senate ballot.

Speaking of which, WTF? Does anybody know the rationale for that decision? It sounds unpleasantly like a dog-in-the-manger thing.

( Background & translation for non-Australians. Much personal slant herein. )

Anybody see a chance for the Australian Democrats to recover what they've lost? Or is it time to declare them dead, and move on?

And apropos of nothing in particular, Uncle Joe meets Alfred E. Neumann.

Family First

And for those wondering, like I was, who exactly 'Family First' might be... thanks to hasimir for doing some digging. While any of the individual facts could be a coincidence, the combination points in unpleasant directions.