One of the more acute observations made of the 2010 Federal election was by Lindsay Tanner, who suggested that a key reason for the Greens’ success was that, in contrast to the major parties, the Greens insisted on treating voters as adults.

Not so the Herald Sun — take this line from today’s editorial entitled ‘Greens world has dark side’:

‘The new fairies at the bottom of the garden, while fantasising of a world ruled by a benevolent global parliament, have turned into vengeful goblins.’

As Bernard Keane notes today, the Greens taking the balance of power in the Senate accurately reflects the Greens’ vote in that House, in contrast, for example, to Steve Fielding, who secured a spot courtesy of Labor’s failed electoral machinations rather than the support of Victorian electors.

The Green “threat to democracy” the Herald Sun warned about in its bedtime story editorial related to Brown’s commitment that, if a carbon pricing scheme was introduced before the next election, the Greens wouldn’t be voting for its repeal afterward.

Far from being anti-democratic, Brown’s commitment reflects the fact that, in blocking any attempt to remove a carbon pricing scheme (in favour, presumably, of the Liberals’ ludicrously expensive and ineffectual ‘direct action’ plan), he would be doing exactly what every single Greens voter wanted.

Perhaps conservative commentators, frothing at the mouth about the Greens, might complain about a “mandate” for the repeal of a carbon pricing scheme. The problem is selectivity. The consternation-in-advance about the Greens not cooperating with Tony Abbott is in dire contrast to the silence — indeed, cheering — that emanated from conservative quarters when first the Liberals, and then Labor, explicitly reneged on their 2007 election commitments to implement an emissions trading scheme.

As Tony Abbott likes to point out, there’s only one MP in the House of Representatives who was elected promising a carbon price, and that’s the Greens’ Adam Bandt. Exactly the same logic would apply after the next election. Then again, News Ltd struggles a bit for logic in its war on the Greens.