Before he became the Republican Party’s superstar, Ronald Reagan was a New Deal Democrat. In explaining his change in party affiliation, Reagan famously said that he hadn’t left the Democratic Party. Instead the Democratic Party left him.
Scott Greer of the Daily Caller applies Reagan’s words to former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a recent dropout from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
On Tuesday, the former Virginia senator announced his withdrawal from his party’s primary due to its abandonment of “millions of dedicated, hard-working Americans.” He further said, “I fully accept that my views on many issues are not compatible with the power structure and the nominating base of the Democratic Party.”
The Republican National Committee agreed with Webb’s sentiment and issued a press release saying his departure was a sign that Democrats were moving towards the far-left fringe.
Webb’s alienation from the Democratic mainstream should be expected when the liberals in charge have, in fact, abandoned the archetypal common man. Democrats once lionized the figures of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson as champions of the little guy in American politics. Now both men are banished from Democratic events because they’re too politically incorrect.
The Democrats’ resolute commitment to social liberalism and identity politics has turned away the old Blue Dog Democrat faction that Webb embodies. They were center-left when it came to economics, but ofte[n]times conservative when it came to social issues. But as Webb found out this election cycle, the modern party has zero tolerance for dissent on social matters.
