This action by the Democratic National Committee to suppress the release regarding its internal autopsy report on the 2024 election is stunning yet entirely predictable. Resistant to unpleasant candor, the DNC behaves more like a PR firm rather than a political organization focused on cultivating local power to secure victories.
A Climate of Conformity
Reluctant to break with the party establishment's culture of conformity, the DNC has continued within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Publishing an official autopsy would have indicated whether party leaders truly desire to encourage public discourse regarding the errors that paved the way for Donald Trump to win re-election. Yet, the DNC is proceeding as if there is little to glean from the electoral catastrophe of 2024.
"Here’s our North Star: is this good for winning elections? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from what truly matters," a justification that has been offered for withholding the report.
Key Issues an Analysis Might Have Explored
An autopsy report with any value would not dodge certain uncomfortable matters. This encompasses:
- Electoral Disenchantment: Losing among millions of voters that backed the Democratic ticket in 2020 was decisive during the tight recent race.
- A Decision to Seek Re-election: The unwavering choice by a party leader to seek re-election, alongside a very late step-aside, is seen by some as robbing the party's base of open primaries.
- Failing Core Democratic Voters: During a time of rising costs, the campaign is criticized for bowing to corporate donors' interests while failing to challenge the effects of profit-seeking.
- A Foreign Policy Factor: An unwillingness to adjust a stance regarding a ongoing war allegedly caused alienating key demographic groups, notably with youth voters, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
- A Decline in Young Voter Backing: Extensive evidence shows a significant decrease of votes for the candidate among young voters.
A Record Avoiding Accountability
Choosing secrecy fits a longstanding habit of evading difficult realities. This mirrors a dynamic in which virtually every Democratic officeholder in Congress acquiesced to an incumbent's decision for seeking another term until a catastrophic televised debate compelled an exit.
At the same time, overwhelming numbers of the electorate had been repeatedly informing researchers of their opposition to that candidate to seek re-election.
Financial Concerns
An honest analysis would also examine matters regarding campaign spending, including how much money went to high-priced advisors and advertising contractors during an electoral effort that managed to spend a staggering amount in a short period.
A Broader Problem
Fundamentally, the secrecy regarding the analysis highlights a submission to party leaders responsible for a disastrous national race. The implication to ordinary supporters – including millions of loyal volunteers – is that they do not have a right to understand the lessons the leadership have learned based on an analysis based on conversations with insiders.
A party unwilling to publicly examine where it went wrong is unlikely to climb out of the pattern that proved so helpful to the winning candidate.
