The action from the DNC to suppress the public viewing regarding its internal autopsy report on the last presidential race is shocking but entirely predictable. Resistant to frank assessments, the party's leadership apparatus operates closer to a communications shop rather than an electoral entity committed to building grassroots capacities for winning elections.
A Culture Resistant to Internal Critique
Hesitant to depart from the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has remained under that legacy throughout this past year. Publishing such a report might have shown that the leadership actually want to foster public discourse about the strategic failures that paved the way for the former president to return to the White House. However, the leadership is moving forward under the pretense that there are no lessons to glean from the tragic debacle from the last cycle.
Our guiding principle: does this help us win? If not, it’s a distraction from the core mission," a rationale that has been offered to justify concealing the report.
Critical Problems a Report Would Have Examined
An autopsy report worth its salt would tackle head-on key points of failure. These include:
- Electoral Disenchantment: The loss of a significant portion of the electorate who supported the Democratic ticket in 2020 became a critical factor in the close recent race.
- A Choice to Seek Re-election: The stubborn decision by a party leader to run again, alongside a very late exit, is viewed as robbing Democratic voters the chance for a genuine choice.
- Abandoning the Working-Class Base: While facing inflation, the electoral effort reportedly bowing to corporate donors' interests without successfully attempting to challenge the role of big business.
- A Foreign Policy Effect: The refusal to adjust an approach concerning a major international conflict is cited as alienating many voters, particularly with young people, Arab-Americans, Muslim voters.
- Losing Youth Backing: Extensive evidence shows a major decrease in support for the party among young voters.
A Pattern Avoiding Accountability
The decision to withhold is consistent with a pattern of evading hard truths. It echoes an episode where virtually every Democratic officeholder in Washington supported a sitting president's insistence on running for re-election right up until a catastrophic televised debate forced an exit.
Concurrently, overwhelming numbers within the party's base had been repeatedly informing pollsters that they opposed the incumbent to run again.
Financial Questions
A thorough autopsy might also probe questions about campaign spending, including what sums flowed to party strategists and advertising contractors over the course of an electoral effort that burned through a staggering war chest in a short period.
The Underlying Problem
Ultimately, the suppression of the official autopsy points to a deference toward the established hierarchy who engineered a losing presidential campaign. The message for the party's base – including millions of loyal volunteers – is that they do not be trusted to understand what the leadership have learned based on an analysis based on feedback from all states.
A party unable to critically review its own failings will struggle to climb out of the pattern that proved so advantageous to the rival party.
