🔗 Share this article

This move from the DNC to suppress the public viewing regarding its internal post-election analysis on the last presidential race is stunning yet not surprising. Averse to unpleasant candor, the party's leadership apparatus often functions more like a communications shop rather than a political organization committed to cultivating grassroots capacities to secure victories.

A Culture That Avoids Dissent

Unwilling to depart from the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has continued within that legacy throughout this past year. Making public the findings could have demonstrated whether party leaders truly desire to foster honest conversation about the missteps which allowed the former president to become president again. Yet, the leadership is moving forward as if there's nothing to understand from the tragic debacle from the last cycle.

"Here’s our North Star: is this good for winning elections? If not, it’s a distraction from our fundamental goal," an explanation which was presented to justify concealing the document.

Major Failures an Autopsy Could Have Addressed

An autopsy report worth its salt would confront key points of failure. This encompasses:

• Electoral Disengagement: Losing of millions of voters that backed the Democratic ticket during the previous election was decisive in the narrowly decided recent race.
• The Insistence to Run: The stubborn decision of a party leader to stay in the race, alongside an extremely delayed exit, has been criticized as denying the party's base of a genuine choice.
• Abandoning Everyday Americans: During a time of inflation, the campaign is criticized for ceding to corporate donors' interests and not managing to challenge the effects of big business.
• A Foreign Policy Impact: An unwillingness to shift an approach concerning a ongoing war reportedly led to alienating significant blocs, notably with youth voters, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
• Eroding Young Voter Allegiance: Polling data demonstrates a huge decline of votes for the candidate among voters aged 18-29.

A Pattern Avoiding Accountability

The decision to withhold is consistent with a pattern of sidestepping difficult realities. This mirrors a situation where nearly all Democratic officeholder in Washington supported a sitting president's decision for running for re-election until a poor public debate performance compelled a reversal.

At the same time, a significant majority within the party's base were consistently telling surveyors that they did not want that candidate to run again.

Financial Issues

A thorough autopsy would also probe matters regarding campaign spending, such as the amounts went to insider consultants as well as advertising contractors during an electoral effort that burned through a staggering war chest over a few months.

A Larger Problem

Ultimately, the blockage of the official autopsy highlights a submission toward the established hierarchy who engineered a losing national race. The implication for rank-and-file members – which includes countless small donors – is that they do not have a right to understand the lessons the insiders say they discovered based on a report based on extensive interviews.

A party unwilling to honestly assess where it went wrong finds it difficult to break free from the rut that ended up being so advantageous to their opponents.