It has nearly been forgotten now, but last fall, Democrats ridiculed and chased one of their primary candidates out of the race. In retrospect, it was a significant event. Now that Donald Trump has won the presidency on the back of a strong performance among low-income and rural white voters, it is worth pondering whether the same left-wing attitude toward Jim Webb is what has driven the white working class out of their party.

As we noted at the time, Webb had been comfortably within the bounds of the liberal Democratic mainstream when he ran for his only Senate term in 2006. He had opposed the Iraq War before it was launched, and also the Gulf War before that. As a senator, he opposed policies barring homosexuals from military service. He supported legalized abortion. He voted for Obamacare. He supported expanding Medicare. He opposed anything resembling privatization of Social Security.