The Democrat Party did a lot more this month than just torpedo its own incumbent president and ignore the will of 14 million of its voters. Both in process and result, the Democrat establishment has sent its only real connection to its past identity to the trashbin. And in rushing to anoint Joe Biden's replacement rather than trust even a representative-democracy process, they have gone all-in on a radical new identity, based largely on radical identitarianism and hard-Left progressivism -- and all-in on elitism. 

That shift began during the Obama presidency, which came to power in the wake of an unpopular war and a financial crisis. However, even then Democrat leadership knew it needed a connection to working-class Americans, and used Joe Biden to bridge that gap. His 2012 convention speech, largely under-appreciated, hearkened back to those populist impulses and party identity -- even as Obama himself shifted the party toward big corporate interests and Academia-driven Leftism. 

In 2016, Democrats lost when Hillary Clinton followed Obama's impulses and castigated populists who mistrusted the "expert class" as "a basket of deplorables." She lost the election, and Democrats turned to Biden in 2020 to re-bridge that gap and tie Democrats back to their working-class base. It worked, or at least it contributed to Biden's win in an election that was more about chaos than policy.

In the past four weeks since the presidential debate, however, the Democrats have become the Chaos Party. They chose panic not because of a national or international crisis such as the COVID pandemic, but because the man for whom they rigged the primaries had fallen in polling and embarrassed everyone during the presidential debate. They turned on Biden immediately and completely, as well as their own voters, to push Biden out -- and with him, the last vestiges of their working-class ties, even as fanciful as Biden's actually were.

The party establishment replaced the voters' choice to anoint Kamala Harris the nominee, a product of the hard-Left California  that is drenched in identitarian politics and Academia's agenda. In one fell swoop, Democrats have overtly transformed themselves into the Insider Party -- where insiders make all the decisions and voters have no say and no investment.

The lack of a competitive primary this year had already accomplished that to a large extent. But the swift trashing of even that fig leaf of pretend democracy reveals the true nature of the Democrat Party. Today's final rounds of endorsements for the appointment of Harris only confirms what is obvious to all:

To grasp the truth of this, one only need ask: Would Harris have won the nomination in a competitive primary? Would she have won it in a truly competitive open-floor fight? The answer to both is not a chance. The only way Harris wins the nomination is by appointment from the elites, not the approval of the masses and/or their representatives at the convention.

Joel Kotkin recognized this transformation yesterday:

The end of Joe Biden’s presidency also signals the demise of the old Democratic Party, with its roots in liberal ideals and advocacy for ‘the common man’. Although Biden, to his own detriment, chose to adopt the progressive views now dominant in the media and political apparat, he remained, at least superficially, a man of the old Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy Democrats.

With the ascension of Kamala Harris, the Democrats have made a full break from their historic roots as the party of workers and have gravitated towards the decidedly post-industrial politics of California-style progressives. Rather than worrying primarily about lifting up living standards, the party’s emphasis will now be on issues like climate change, abortion, reparations and trans advocacy. ...

Historically, Democrats kept these voters by focussing on bread-and-butter issues, like housing, wages, living and working conditions. But today’s Democratic Party base lies elsewhere, with the professional urban ele whose views differ enormously with the vast majority on issues like censorship, or rationing of gas and meat. This new party base, concentrated in a handful of cities, as beneficiaries of both government largesse and the stock market boom, has reason to love the current regime. But working-class people are doing less well. As a result, they are far less supportive of the Democrats in the key battleground states, such as Arizona and Michigan.

That transformation will have real-world consequences in the short term, especially where Democrats can least afford them. In an electorate already angry over the failures of "experts" and technocrats, the appointment of an elitist to the ticket will not sell well in Pennsylvania, Salena Zito warns:

President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from his reelection race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement was not met with as much enthusiasm among Pennsylvania Democrats as it was among party leaders in other parts of the country.

Pennsylvania is arguably the most important swing state in the country. But while gushing endorsements for Harris came from the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Pennsylvania party leaders sang a different tune. ...

While elected Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), spent the day sending out full support for Harris, Democrats here in Pennsylvania worry about her appeal in the state, especially in Western Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracking has been an economic game changer — something Harris adamantly opposes.

As a presidential candidate in 2020, Harris said in a televised CNN town hall that there was “no question I’m in favor [of] banning fracking,” something she said if president she would do on day one in office. Former Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said if you thought Hillary Clinton had problems connecting with the all-important smaller Pennsylvania counties in 2016 — the ones such as Erie that ultimately cost her the election — Harris, because of her views on fossil fuels, will struggle even more so.

That is precisely what the Democrat Party has become. That transformation is now explicit, both in candidate choice and process. They have become the party of Academia-driven elites, and they expect voters to fall in line rather than participate in the process in any meaningful manner. 

Republicans have a real opportunity to offer this election as a choice over who really have sovereignty in America: the voters or the elites? At least that would be a more honest basis on which voters can choose what kind of republic they really want.