The decision by the DNC to withhold the release regarding its own post-election analysis concerning the 2024 election appears remarkable but entirely predictable. Resistant to unpleasant candor, the party's leadership apparatus operates closer to a publicity machine than a political organization focused on building local power for winning elections.
An Environment of Conformity
Unwilling to break with the prevailing attitude demanding unity, the DNC has remained within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Releasing the findings might have shown whether party leaders truly desire to promote public discourse about the strategic failures which allowed the former president to become president again. Yet, the leadership is moving forward under the pretense that there are no lessons to be learned following the tragic debacle of 2024.
Our guiding principle: will this lead to victory? If the answer is no, it becomes a sideline issue from the core mission," a justification which was presented for withholding the analysis.
Critical Problems an Autopsy Might Have Explored
Any valuable post-mortem of substance would confront certain uncomfortable matters. These include:
- Voter Disenchantment: Failing to retain of millions of voters who voted for the party's candidate during the previous election was decisive in the close recent race.
- A Choice to Run: The determined decision of the incumbent to run again, coupled with an extremely delayed withdrawal, is viewed as robbing the party's base the chance for a competitive nomination process.
- Losing Touch With Core Democratic Voters: During a time of inflation, the campaign reportedly ceding to powerful financial backers and not managing to confront the role of corporate greed.
- A Gaza Effect: An unwillingness to shift a policy position on the situation in Gaza allegedly caused losing many voters, especially among youth voters, Arab-Americans, Muslim voters.
- A Decline in Youth Allegiance: Research shows a significant decline of Democratic support among voters aged 18-29.
A Record Shunning Scrutiny
This refusal is consistent with a pattern of sidestepping hard truths. This mirrors an episode in which nearly all Democratic officeholder in Washington supported an incumbent's insistence on seeking another term right up until a poor campaign event forced a reversal.
Concurrently, a significant majority of Democratic voters were continually telling researchers that they did not want that candidate to run again.
Financial Issues
A thorough autopsy might also investigate questions about campaign spending, such as the amounts flowed to party strategists and advertising contractors during a campaign that managed to spend an enormous war chest during the general election.
The Underlying Issue
At its core, the blockage of the official autopsy points to a submission to the existing power structure who engineered a losing national race. The message for the party's base – including millions of small donors – is that they do not have a right to understand the lessons party chiefs have learned based on an analysis drawing from conversations with insiders.
A political entity incapable to honestly assess where it went wrong is unlikely to climb out of the cycle which was so helpful to the rival party.
