ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Democrats, at one time, at one President John F. Kennedy time, for instance, may have been able to make a sensible case for serving as a party that puts its people first, its country at the forefront, and its compass fixed directly on helping the downtrodden and forgotten of society.

But those days are long gone. Democrats have become the welcome wagon to the screaming nut job, the red-carpet rollout for the bat-wielding protester.

The entire Brett Kavanaugh nomination process shows the party of the left has completely sold its soul to the anti-American forces it once actually recognized, in writing, as a threat to the nation.

Look at the Democratic Party Platform of 1960, versus the Democratic Party Platform of 2016.

On national security, the very first section of the 1960 platform, the then-views of the Dems were to create and maintain a “deterrent military power such that the Soviet and Chinese leaders will have no doubt that an attack on the United States would surely be followed by their own destruction,” the American Presidency Project recorded.

On civil defense, the 1960 circa Dems were adamant, a “strong and effective civil defense is an essential element.”

On far-left ideologies, to include communism, the Democrats of decades gone by wrote, “To the rules of the Communist World: … We believe your Communist ideology to be sterile, unsound, and doomed to failure. We believe that your children will reject the intellectual prison in which you seek to confine them, and that ultimately they will choose the eternal principles of freedom.”

Sounds almost Republican in tone, yes?

But the times, they have changed.

The party of Barack Obama, the part of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party of 2016 brought forth a platform that begins with a table of contents that reads like a how-to of socialist agenda implementation, and moves, from there, into even farther left-leaning territory.

Section One reads, “Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class.”

Section Two: “Create Good-Paying Jobs.”

Section Three: “Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality.”

And Section Four: “Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Opportunities,” followed by the subheads of “Guaranteeing Civil Rights,” “Guaranteeing Women’s Rights,” “Guaranteeing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights,” and “Guaranteeing Rights for People with Disabilities.”

It’s not even until page 40 of the platform the Democrats of 2016 get around to addressing national defense, the military and the war on terrorism — and then only in the most globally minded, social justice of manners.

“Democrats welcome and honor all Americans who want to serve and will continue to fight for their equal rights and recognition,” the platform’s “A Strong Military” section read. “We are proud of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and we commit ourselves to insuring fair treatment for LGBT veterans.”

What a switch a few decades brings.

The Democrats have morphed from a party that, even in its differences with Republicans, seemed to still care for America’s welfare, to a party that cares for social justice at all costs, special rights at whatever regard, personal glory for its chosen politicians no matter what constitutional costs.

While good for Republicans — and both polls and anecdotal evidence certainly show that even the more independent voters around the nation detest how Kavanaugh’s been treated by the left — this far-left shift of the Democrats leading to thuggery in the streets is damaging to America as a whole, in the long-term.

Simply put: A country run by chaos rather than law and order is a country slated to crumble. Even Democrats running high on political ambition ought to see the sense of returning to more constitutional times and adopting more measured, Founding Father-type principles.

Democrats, for the good of the nation, need to scrub the radical elements from their midst and get back on board with putting America first. It’s not just a campaign slogan, courtesy of President Donald Trump; putting America first is a basic constitutional principle that Democrats of yesteryear seemed to understand.

Today’s Democratic Party should revisit some of their past platforms and revise accordingly.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.