Dear Belly,

Yeah, you're right.

We got rid of the "White Australia" policy - someone
should let Ms Hanson know.

I don't think we can measure the worth or lack of worth of an idea by the percentage of voters who are for or against an idea. In a democracy we are committed to the idea that the majority rules. That is a decision making process. The majority may make a poor judgment. However, theoretically the majority determines policy so we usually abide by the decision of the majority in a democracy.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.”

I think that Thoreau was right. The only question is how do we determine who is right.

The percentage of votes that the Greens or One Nation get says little about the worth of their ideas. Most voters vote for either the Coalition or Labor because of their party loyalty, family tradition and other reasons which have nothing to do with the worth of the ideas or programs presented by the Coalition or Labor.

I vote for the Greens although I am reasonably sure they will never get more than 15% of the votes. I vote for them because I think most of their policies are good. However if those policies were presented to the public under the label of the Coalition, Labor or One Nation the vote for those policies will be different. I am more interested in policies than party labels. If the Coalition, Labor or One Nation adopted the policies of the Greens I would vote for those policies regardless of the party label over those policies.

Hi David, nice to hear from you. You as someone who is interested in the policies of political parties puts you very much in the minority. Having dealt with voters over decades your summation about voter loyalty is about where it is at. For 80% they vote the same pattern election after election, from local, state to federal. Policy is something you get from the six o'clock news. For example the complex taxation policy, for most voters the Coalition policy is in total; "The government favours tax cuts for big business, nothing for me." Labor on the other hand, their taxation policy is "Big business does no deserve a tax cut, they are rich and undeserving, we love you the battlers." On that, the Coalition have a hard sell, whereas Labor given voter perception of big business at the moment have a much easier sell. As important as any policy is the cult of the personality. For the Coalition and Labour, its very much the public persona of the leader, how he or she presents on the six o'clock news. Presently Turnbull is touring drought areas, that in itself is an exercise in showing concern, dress like a farmer, pick up a handful of dry dirt, nod as if you really care, as the drought affected tell their short, but sad story, all for mass consumption on the six o'clock news. If tax policy is not working for the government, I would have to say the drought is. This is how a leader creates the persona of caring, but its very important for all elected party people, from the leader down, to as often as possible present with empathy to those you want to represent, the appearance that I am one of you is very important these days. I must stress politicians are not simple self serving egotist with no real community concern, they are far from that. When a politician says; "I got into politics to make a difference" that generally is true, but the reality of politics puts lots of constrains on the individual, from the leader down.

About 92 percent of voters reject one nation, every Australian should be proud of that I am

Belly,
This obviously makes you happy but as for me this makes me sad to see so little patriotism.

Individual you and I will never ever agree,on any thing, but your view of patriotism, thankfully, is far different than mine, as is your view of just about any one who works for a living or collects welfare, Paul, well I am bound to think many, too many, voters do not put enough thought in to how and why they vote, but here we part ways, my evidence is your greens and one notion! deliberate miss spelling, the thought the majority, gee bloke, get it wrong? we are not, thankfully, Americans, voters usually get it right

Time will show that Americans "got it right" with Trump. In fact, that has already been shown; they are already better off than they were under the last three presidents.