In the iconic Western film “High Noon,” Marshal Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, is left alone to do battle with a gang of outlaws. The townspeople, all of Kane’s “friends” and even his own deputy turn their back on him, and indeed their own town, in their collective hour of need.

That film serves as a metaphor for the multiple problems now plaguing the Democratic Party, not the least of which is its loss of touch with working-class and disenfranchised voters. A significant number of what used to be their base — including many non-white voters — have been turned off by identity politics at a record pace.

The “Will Kane” in this case is any commonsense, pragmatic, populist Democrat of stature. The town is the Democratic Party. Those on the far left and many in the media will assume that the “gang of outlaws” is President Trump and his administration. Unfortunately for the viability of the Democratic Party, that kind of knee-jerk reaction only further erodes the party’s support.

The “outlaws” in this case are the far-left fringe within the Democratic Party. Those are the outlaws and the bullies that the regular town-folk of Democratville are petrified to call out. One Democrat who has sent signals that he now understands that is California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On a recent episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Newsom

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