Still, something more serious than back-alley political cynicism is reflected in the statements from these Democratic presidential candidates. An issue raised by the entire Kavanaugh process is whether the Democratic Party as defined by its current generation of party activists is willing to conduct politics outside any conceivable definition of acceptable behavior.

Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed by a Senate vote nearly a year ago after a hearing process of unprecedented political bitterness. This New York Times article and the piling on by five Democratic presidential candidates amount to a ritualistic stoning of Brett Kavanaugh. If the established system doesn’t go their way, they’ll conduct politics outside the system. Whatever it takes.

The day after Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, left-wing activists took over streets throughout Manhattan and shut down commuter traffic. It always struck me as a telling event, insofar as most of the New York workers these activists were shafting voted for Hillary Clinton. But their point was clear: We’ll disrupt and even smash the system when we want to. This is becoming the ethos—a politics without norms or boundaries—that now defines the Democratic Party.