This move from the DNC to suppress the publication of its own autopsy report on the last presidential race is shocking but to be expected. Resistant to unpleasant candor, the DNC often functions more like a communications shop rather than a political organization focused on cultivating a volunteer base for winning elections.
A Climate Resistant to Internal Critique
Unwilling to challenge the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has continued within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Releasing such a report might have shown whether party leaders truly desire to foster public discourse about the missteps which allowed the former president to become president again. Instead, the DNC is proceeding as if there are no lessons to glean from the stunning loss of 2024.
Our guiding principle: is this good for winning elections? Should the answer be negative, it is an unnecessary diversion from the core mission," a rationale that has been offered to justify concealing the report.
Key Issues an Analysis Might Have Explored
Any valuable post-mortem with any value would tackle head-on certain uncomfortable matters. Among them are:
- Electoral Alienation: The loss of a significant portion of the electorate that backed the Democratic ticket in 2020 was decisive in the close recent race.
- A Insistence to Seek Re-election: The determined choice by a party leader to run again, and a very late step-aside, is viewed as denying the party's base of a competitive nomination process.
- Abandoning the Working-Class Base: While facing rising costs, the campaign reportedly ceding to corporate donors' interests without successfully attempting to address the impact of corporate greed.
- The Gaza Impact: The failure to adjust an approach on a ongoing war reportedly led to losing key demographic groups, especially with youth voters, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
- A Decline in Youth Backing: Extensive evidence shows a significant drop-off of votes for the candidate from the youth electorate.
A Pattern Avoiding Accountability
The decision to withhold aligns with a pattern of sidestepping uncomfortable facts. This mirrors an episode in which the vast majority of elected Democrat in Washington acquiesced to an incumbent's insistence on running for re-election right up until a poor public debate performance forced a change.
Meanwhile, a significant majority of Democratic voters were continually telling researchers that they did not want that candidate to run again.
Financial Issues
A thorough analysis would also probe matters about campaign spending, including how much money were directed to insider consultants as well as media firms over the course of a campaign that burned through a staggering amount in a short period.
A Larger Implication
Fundamentally, the suppression of the official autopsy highlights a deference to party leaders who engineered an unsuccessful national race. The implication for rank-and-file members – including countless loyal volunteers – is that they do not be trusted to see what the leadership have learned from an analysis compiled from conversations with insiders.
An organization unwilling to honestly assess its own failings is unlikely to climb out of the pattern that proved so helpful to their opponents.
