The decision from the DNC to block the publication regarding its internal post-election analysis on the 2024 election seems remarkable yet entirely predictable. Resistant to hard truths, the party's leadership apparatus often functions closer to a publicity machine than an electoral entity focused on building grassroots capacities to secure victories.
A Climate of Conformity
Unwilling to break with the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has continued within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Publishing such a report might have shown that the leadership truly desire to promote public discourse regarding the errors that enabled Donald Trump to become president again. Instead, the leadership is moving forward under the pretense that there are no lessons to understand from the stunning loss from the last cycle.
The top priority: does this help us win? Should the answer be negative, it becomes a sideline issue from the core mission," a justification which was presented to justify concealing the report.
Key Issues a Report Might Have Examined
An autopsy report of substance would not dodge key points of failure. These include:
- Electoral Disengagement: The loss among millions of voters who voted for the party's candidate during the previous election became a critical factor in the narrowly decided recent race.
- A Decision to Run: The determined decision of a party leader to run again, alongside a very late step-aside, is seen by some as robbing the party's base the chance for a competitive nomination process.
- Abandoning Everyday Americans: During a time of inflation, the campaign is criticized for bowing to elite contributors while failing to confront the effects of big business.
- The Foreign Policy Impact: The failure to shift an approach concerning a major international conflict is cited as alienating many voters, particularly with young people, Arab American communities, Muslim voters.
- A Decline in Youth Allegiance: Extensive evidence demonstrates a huge decrease in support for the party among young voters.
A Pattern Avoiding Accountability
This refusal is consistent with a pattern to avoid hard truths. This mirrors a situation where virtually every elected Democrat in Washington went along with an incumbent's decision for seeking another term right up until a disastrous televised debate led to an exit.
Meanwhile, large majorities of the electorate were repeatedly informing pollsters that they did not want the incumbent to seek re-election.
Financial Questions
A substantive report might also probe questions about where money went, including the amounts were directed to party strategists and media firms during a campaign that burned through a staggering war chest over a few months.
The Larger Problem
At its core, the suppression of the official autopsy is symptomatic of a submission to the existing power structure that oversaw an unsuccessful presidential campaign. The implication for rank-and-file members – including millions of dedicated activists – is that they cannot be trusted to see what the leadership say they discovered based on a report compiled from conversations with insiders.
A party unable to publicly examine its own failings finds it difficult to climb out of the cycle which was so advantageous to their opponents.
