To the Democrat party elites, the great unwashed that is their base are nothing but a means to an end.
In short, if you've read Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, that's standard modus operandi for the elites on the Left.
I'm serious when I'm going to suggest that Donald Trump run his campaign by running against everything Rules for Radicals stands for.
Marx referred to them as the "lumpenproletariat," basically beyond redemption and good only as cannon fodder for the revolution.