The move by the DNC to suppress the publication of its own autopsy report on the last presidential race seems shocking however to be expected. Resistant to hard truths, the party's leadership apparatus operates closer to a PR firm rather than a political organization devoted to cultivating local power for winning elections.
A Climate Resistant to Internal Critique
Unwilling to challenge the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the committee has continued under the influence of the previous administration throughout this past year. Making public such a report could have demonstrated that the leadership truly desire to foster open debate regarding the strategic failures which allowed Donald Trump to win re-election. Yet, the leadership is moving forward under the pretense that there is little to understand from the electoral catastrophe from the last cycle.
The top priority: will this lead to victory? Should the answer be negative, it’s a distraction from our fundamental goal," a justification which was presented to justify concealing the document.
Major Failures a Report Might Have Addressed
Any valuable post-mortem worth its salt would tackle head-on certain uncomfortable matters. Among them are:
- Electoral Disenchantment: Failing to retain among millions of voters that backed the party's candidate in 2020 was decisive in the close recent race.
- A Choice to Run: The unwavering choice of a party leader to run again, alongside a very late withdrawal, has been criticized as denying Democratic voters of a competitive nomination process.
- Failing Everyday Americans: During a time of rising costs, the electoral effort allegedly ceding to elite contributors and not managing to address the role of profit-seeking.
- The Foreign Policy Effect: The failure to reconsider a policy position concerning a ongoing war reportedly led to losing key demographic groups, particularly among youth voters, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
- Losing Youth Support: Polling data indicates a huge drop-off of votes for the candidate among voters aged 18-29.
A Pattern Shunning Scrutiny
The decision to withhold fits a longstanding habit of evading hard truths. It echoes an episode where nearly all elected Democrat in Congress supported a sitting president's insistence on seeking another term until a disastrous public debate performance led to an exit.
At the same time, a significant majority within the party's base had been continually telling pollsters of their opposition to the incumbent to run again.
Campaign Spending Issues
A substantive autopsy could investigate issues about financial allocations, including the amounts were directed to insider consultants as well as ad buyers over the course of a campaign that burned through an enormous sum during the general election.
The Broader Issue
At its core, the secrecy of the official autopsy points to a deference to the existing power structure responsible for an unsuccessful electoral effort. The message to the party's base – including countless dedicated activists – is that they cannot be trusted to know the lessons party chiefs say they discovered based on a report compiled from conversations with insiders.
An organization unable to publicly examine where it went wrong will struggle to climb out of the cycle that ended up being so advantageous to their opponents.
