The Democrats abandoned the working class to create a Grievance Olympics obsessed with identity politics

I’m done with the Democrats.I voted for Kamala Harris — but left the party I’d belonged to for decades after witnessing its unhinged reaction to the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, as I explained in these pages last month.The Democratic position on transgender rights is part of a larger problem: the Democratic embrace of being “woke.”To be woke means to accept without question the claims of the myriad identity groups that demand special treatment.The Democrats were once the party of working people and unions.They were committed to bridging the gap between rich and poor.

The Dems sought practical solutions.They focused on class.

Now they seem to focus on every characteristic except class.Democrats correctly identified a serious problem in the 1960s that was holding us back from making progress: discrimination.The Democratic solution was affirmative action, which specified the determination of who was qualified for a position should be made without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.

The idea was these characteristics could then be used to distinguish among qualified candidates.The problem is affirmative action became a clumsy marker for who should be hired rather than a more nuanced examination of applicants’ skills, which can be found in abundance in communities that suffered discrimination.“We should hire X because X and Y are both well qualified and hiring X, a minority candidate, would increase diversity” became “We should hire X because of her or his race or sex even if Y is better qualified.” Critics of affirmative action said what was really going on was reverse discrimination.Affirmative action became about group membership; membership in that group, without more, was itself considered a qualification.

Discussions of merit became irrelevant — indeed offensive — because any interpretation of merit that did not favor the member of the identity group could be explained away as itself a manifestation of dis...