Political parties can change over time and morph into a new entity whilst retaining their outward appearance. The transition can be difficult to detect, especially for those intimately involved in the day-to-day machinations of the parties. Often an event highlights a change that has been underway for some time. Such was the defection of Robert F. Kennedy Jnr from the Democratic party and his subsequent endorsement of Donald Trump. It was an event that marked the end of the old Dems. It is not so much that RFK Jnr has changed: the Democratic party itself has been steered a long way from the moorings of his father and uncle. It seems often that the only thing the Democratic party of the 1960s shares with the party today is the name.

Mr Kennedy’s withering critique of the modern party is a measure of the change. Recalling that he attended his first Democratic convention at the age of six in 1960, he summarised the changes. ‘Back then, the Democrats were the champions of the Constitution and of civil rights. The Democrats stood against authoritarianism, against censorship, against colonialism, against imperialism, and against unjust wars. We were the party of labor, of the working class. The Democrats were the party of government transparency and the champion of the environment. Our party was the bulwark against big money interests and corporate power. True to its name, it was the party of democracy. As you know, I left that party in October because it had departed so dramatically from the core values that I grew up with. It had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big ag, and big money.’

Whether readers agree with Kennedy about the various issues he mentioned or not, his analysis is pertinent. ‘What alarms me [most] is the resort to censorship, media control, and weaponisation of the federal agencies. When a US president colludes with, or outright coerces media companies to censor political speech, it’s an attack on our most sacred right of free expression. And that’s the very right upon which all of our other constitutional rights rest.’

The new Democratic party is the home of the Silicon Valley capitalists, the progressive not-for-profits, the Hollywood elite, and a wealthy east coast oligarchy typified by the Obamas.

It was the Hollywood elite led by George Clooney who told Biden to go; it was Billy Baldwin who chastised RFK for supporting Trump. It was Quentin Tarantino who instructed Harris not to do any interviews. Look up the biography of most Hollywood celebrities: almost all of them are Democrat supporters and financial contributors. In 2023, Vice President Harris spent more time in California than almost all the other states of America combined.

It was the Obamas who abandoned Biden when it became clear that he was no longer useful and would lose to Trump. It was this same coalition that fought off the real socialists in the party such as Bernie Sanders and the Gang of Four.

Rereading John F. Kennedy’s acceptance speech to the Democratic convention in July 1960, it is difficult to imagine how he could be a member of the Democratic party today. ‘The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises – it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer to the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride. It appeals to our pride, not our security – it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security…. That is the choice that our nation must make – a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort – between national greatness and national decline – between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of ‘normalcy’ – between dedication or mediocrity.’

Much of what JFK said in that speech and many others could be uttered by mainstream Republicans in more recent times.

The change in the party is profound. To take one example: there are no more pro-life Democratic members of Congress. A few years ago, a colleague from the US told me that he was the last pro-life Democrat member of Congress. He has since lost his primary to the new forces. The impact of this change was on full display at the Democrat National Convention, complete with its attendant brash abortion clinics. Ms Harris, as Californian Attorney General was at the forefront of efforts to harass pro-life centres until the pursuit was  curbed by the US Supreme Court. And another example: a Teamsters boss spoke at the Republican National Convention, not at the convention of the party historically supportive of the working class. Many wealthy professionals are happy to employ migrants, especially the low paid. Standing up for the workers, as past generations of Democratic leaders did, has largely dissipated.

Win or lose, 2024 marks the end of the traditional Democratic party. Joe Biden will come to be seen as the last of the old Democrats, politically executed when no longer of service to the new rulers. Kamala Harris was not their preferred choice, but now ensconced as the presidential candidate, the force of the ruling coalition is being thrown behind her campaign. Witness the amount of money raised in just a couple of weeks. Mr Trump ignores this phenomenon at his peril. Most of the new Democrats are no more socialist than the wealthy capitalists who fund the Teals in Australia.

Instead of attacking Ms Harris, Mr Trump would be advised to stick to his core messages about the economy, the cost of living and illegal immigration. The working class have much to lose from uncontrolled immigration and the most vocal critics are usually migrants themselves.

This historic shift is not confined to the Democratic party. The Republican party of Ronald Reagan and the Bush family is now the Trump movement. The gulf between Ronald Reagan’s acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention in Detroit in July 1980 and Mr Trump’s remarks in Milwaukee is as wide as the Midwest.

Nor is the transition confined to the United States. In Australia, it is disguised by the affiliation of unions with the ALP, which now represent less than 13 per cent of the workforce. Just 1.4 million of the nation’s 11.4 million workers belonged to a union in December 2022. In the private sector, the proportion has fallen to 8 per cent. The outliers are the largely public sector unions such as education and training, public administration, the power services and health care. It is notable that stronger union participation in the public sector and administrative roles is now reflected in the parliamentary Labor party membership.

In both the US and Australia, there is a cohort of the population that can determine an election. Traditionally, supporters of the Democratic party in the US and Labor in Australia – that is the working class – have been abandoned by their respective parties that now represent a new elitism.

This creates an opportunity for the Coalition, as it does for Mr Trump, if it is prepared to pursue it.