The important thing is that the electorate remain divided and the sides well balanced so that if the labels (populist, elitist) change it will be a trade: at no time are both cons and libs to be aligned and competing for the working class vote. "Democracy is capitalism's #1 enemy." I hope to see a day when both parties are actually and simultaneously competing for the working class vote, but now that I've lived through one instance of the exchange, and am aware of a historical example, I'm not going to hold my breath, it's not chance.
You're right, neither party really represents the working class. Surprisingly the democratic party now sells trickle down economics as a thing too. Shouldn't be all that surprising I guess as they're now the let's go to war party as well. It's bizarre world for sure. So where does that leave us when making a choice? Social issues, that's where. The democratic party has clearly lost ground on social issues. Men can have babies. Err, no they can't. We defend women's rights. Watch women get the shit beat out of them by men in women's sports. It's a good idea to start kids Trans as young as 5 or 6. Err, no it's not. We won't prosecute criminals so long as they don't steal too much. Err, not a good idea. It's not all that much of a problem when gangs of illegals take over residential housing so long as it's only a few residents. Err, no it's kind of a big deal. Shall I go on? When people know neither party will do much for them financially, and one of the two parties have obviously lost their fucking minds on social issues, the orange man doesn't look so bad. And here we are.
Speaking of not looking so bad......... One of the "pundits" on CNN said that one of the areas where the dems made/make a mistake with hispanics is to assume that you can keep pointing out something harsh that Trump said and it would alienate them and they would turn away from Trump. The pundit pointed out that most of these immigrants or their parents come countries where their leaders make Trump look like angel so they are pre-prepared to overlook a lot if they agree with Trump on other issues. Anyway, dems have another problem now which is that they need to figure out what to in the midterm election. The problem is that their "go-to" arguments did not work in the general so doubling down on them is not the smartest way to go. They spent a billion on Kamala to chant racist, racist, racist and fascist, fascist, fascist, and misogynist, misogynist, misogynist 24/7 and at the highest, most expensive level humanly possible. Didn't work. So now what for the midterm strategy? Well, that's another area where they have worn out their "go-to" approach, ie. lawfare and impeachments. Good luck trying those again. They can do it but the public appetite for it is absolutely zero. It's a great way to lose at the midterms though so I am all for it.
Judging their immediate reaction to the loss it's obvious they haven't learned a thing. The knee jerk was/is to blame everyone else. Leftism 101. They ain't real big on self examination. Understandable. They are the party of intellectuals after all.