Presidential candidate Jim Webb has left the Democrat primary race, and maybe the Democrat Party. On Tuesday, Webb stood before a group of reporters with his wife at his side and said he is dropping out of the Democrat primary because his views are opposed to the “nominating base” of the party that really should be renamed the Party of Marx. Now, he’s mulling running for the White House as an independent candidate. The Democrat Party “is filled with millions of dedicated, hardworking Americans, but its hierarchy is not comfortable with many of the policies that I have laid forth,” Webb said. “And quite frankly, I’m not comfortable with many of theirs.”

Webb has what other Democrat candidates lack: Character and the integrity not to play identity politics. When asked during last week’s Democrat debate who was their greatest enemy, the rest of the candidates named some fellow Americans with whom they disagreed; Webb, who was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, said his was the foreign combatant who threw a grenade at him.

Ever since Webb announced his candidacy amidst the tumult of the Independence Day weekend, his campaign has struggled with polling numbers of about 1%. Webb attributes this to the atmosphere created by the Democrat elite, who are more willing to embrace socialists than decorated veterans, who chase lobbyists for the green industry rather than listen to the voices in “West Baltimore and the Appalachian mountains.” Indeed, Ronald Reagan’s former Navy secretary could borrow his old boss’s famous line: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the party left me.”

(Note: We neglected at first to mention Webb’s foremost award, the Navy Cross. That oversight has been corrected.)