Don Chipp

I discussed Don Chipp on the ABC this morning. From a historical viewpoint the Democrats were the last of a long series of 'dissident right' parties, such as the citizens' movements of the Depression, the various 'middle-class' parties of the mid 1940s and even to a degree the early Country Party. But all of these formations were soon incorporated back into the right. The Democrats have survived (if only just) because the forces of radicalism in Australia now come from the right rather than the left. Their problem recently has been that with Labor now the party of Deakinite liberalism it is difficult for the Democrats to find a niche. Labor has taken over the Democrat's ground, this has made Labor vulnerable on the left hence the Greens.