What used to be the party of the working man

Rufus asks,

Where did all the kitchen table Democrats go—the Democrats as they were understood by past generations. You remember, they fought for the common man, championed the working family, gave unto Caesar but overturned the counting tables.

These were the Depression-era Democrats who assisted destitute families who migrated from harvest to harvest and lived in tents. The Democrats who sponsored mega-projects to employ the jobless and who sided with unions to give wage earners leverage against exploitation. Then, during the world war, they protected us with rationing and price caps and home visit nurses, and after the war, they sponsored government-backed loans to finance homes for returning GIs. It's a great story.

...How did Everyman, the struggling and perpetually wronged object of their doting attention, become a deplorable xenophobic, homophobic, racist, misogynist drooling lunatic, unfit to look through the window at all that is good and decent? How did "f--k whiteness" become a thing with them? Is the party determined to make enemies of every last white working class person in America? Are white folks now one of their despised "special interests" and a "plague to the planet" ?

What must former John Q. Public do to exonerate himself in the eyes of the party? Would murdering a few cops suffice? How about punching out some elderly Trump supporters? Loot and burn a CVS or two?

Predictably enough, after demanding normies demonstrate their Civic Responsibility by embracing an election result thought to be a certainty, then losing in an epic pratfall, they're sponsoring riots, shutting down major highways, and committing serial vandalism and assault in public places. Their strategists wave it off as "recapturing the narrative" but fantasize about overturning the election "by any means necessary", including assassination and armed insurrection .

...The party specifies the target of this blood frenzy in the starkest of terms: middle America, particularly white middle America. A resurrected JFK himself wouldn't be safe from them. So. Where did all the kitchen table Democrats go we still wonder, as the unhinged slander and threats blow inland, and as the assaults increase daily . But paralleling that increase, so does fear and loathing for the former working man's party.

A line has been crossed. What happens from here can't be known. It can, however, be imagined with a high degree of confidence.

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