This move by the DNC to withhold the publication of its own post-election analysis concerning the 2024 election is stunning but to be expected. Averse to unpleasant candor, the party's leadership apparatus behaves closer to a publicity machine rather than a political organization committed to cultivating local power to secure victories.
A Culture of Conformity
Reluctant to challenge the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has stayed within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Making public the findings might have shown whether party leaders are interested to promote honest conversation about the strategic failures that enabled Donald Trump to return to the White House. Yet, the leadership is moving forward as if there's nothing to be learned from the tragic debacle from the last cycle.
"Here’s our North Star: is this good for winning elections? Should the answer be negative, it’s a distraction from the core mission," a rationale reportedly given for withholding the report.
Major Failures an Analysis Could Have Addressed
An autopsy report worth its salt would tackle head-on certain uncomfortable matters. These include:
- Electoral Disengagement: Losing among millions of voters who voted for the party's candidate in 2020 became a critical factor in the narrowly decided recent race.
- A Choice to Run: The determined decision of the incumbent to stay in the race, and a very late exit, is seen by some as denying Democratic voters of open primaries.
- Losing Touch With Core Democratic Voters: Amid economic anxiety, the campaign allegedly ceding to elite contributors and not managing to address the impact of profit-seeking.
- The Foreign Policy Impact: An unwillingness to adjust a policy position regarding a major international conflict is cited as losing key demographic groups, especially among young people, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
- Eroding Young Voter Backing: Extensive evidence shows a major decrease in Democratic support from the youth electorate.
A Pattern of Evasion
This refusal is consistent with a pattern to avoid difficult realities. It recalls a situation where virtually every Democratic officeholder in Congress went along with a sitting president's decision for seeking another term right up until a catastrophic televised debate forced a reversal.
At the same time, a significant majority within the party's base had been consistently telling pollsters that they did not want the incumbent to seek re-election.
Campaign Spending Concerns
A substantive autopsy would also investigate issues about campaign spending, including what sums were directed to insider consultants and ad buyers during a campaign that managed to spend an enormous war chest during the general election.
A Broader Implication
At its core, the secrecy surrounding this report is symptomatic of a deference toward the established hierarchy that oversaw a losing electoral effort. The signal to the party's base – which includes millions of loyal volunteers – appears to be that they cannot be trusted to understand what the leadership say they discovered based on a report based on feedback from all states.
A party unable to publicly examine where it went wrong is unlikely to escape the cycle that proved so advantageous to their opponents.
