The move by the DNC to withhold the public viewing regarding its internal post-election analysis on the last presidential race is remarkable but not surprising. Opposed to hard truths, the DNC often functions closer to a communications shop rather than an electoral entity devoted to building grassroots capacities for winning elections.
A Culture That Avoids Dissent
Unwilling to challenge the party establishment's culture of conformity, the DNC has stayed within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Publishing an official autopsy would have indicated that the leadership truly desire to foster open debate regarding the missteps that enabled Donald Trump to become president again. However, the DNC is proceeding under the pretense that there is little to be learned from the electoral catastrophe of 2024.
The top priority: will this lead to victory? If the answer is no, it becomes a sideline issue from what truly matters," a rationale which was presented to justify concealing the report.
Key Issues a Report Might Have Explored
Any valuable post-mortem with any value would not dodge key points of failure. These include:
- Electoral Disenchantment: Losing among millions of voters who voted for the Democratic ticket in 2020 proved pivotal in the close recent race.
- A Decision to Seek Re-election: The unwavering choice of a party leader to run again, and a last-minute step-aside, has been criticized as denying the party's base of a competitive nomination process.
- Abandoning Core Democratic Voters: Amid inflation, the electoral effort is criticized for bowing to powerful financial backers without successfully attempting to challenge the role of big business.
- A Foreign Policy Factor: An unwillingness to adjust a stance on a ongoing war is cited as driving away significant blocs, especially among youth voters, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
- A Decline in Youth Support: Polling data demonstrates a significant decline in Democratic support among the youth electorate.
A History Avoiding Accountability
Choosing secrecy aligns with a pattern to avoid uncomfortable facts. It echoes an episode in which virtually every elected Democrat in Congress went along with an incumbent's decision for seeking another term until a poor public debate performance compelled a change.
Meanwhile, overwhelming numbers of Democratic voters had been consistently telling surveyors of their opposition to that candidate to seek re-election.
Campaign Spending Questions
A thorough analysis would also examine matters about financial allocations, including what sums flowed to high-priced advisors and media firms over the course of a campaign that managed to spend an enormous war chest during the general election.
The Larger Implication
Fundamentally, the secrecy regarding the analysis is symptomatic of a submission to party leaders who engineered an unsuccessful presidential campaign. The message for the party's base – including countless loyal volunteers – is that they cannot have a right to know what the leadership have learned based on a report based on feedback from all states.
An organization unwilling to honestly assess its own failings finds it difficult to break free from the rut that proved so advantageous to the winning candidate.
