This decision by the DNC to suppress the public viewing of its internal post-election analysis concerning the last presidential race seems shocking however entirely predictable. Resistant to unpleasant candor, the party's leadership apparatus often functions more like a PR firm than a political organization devoted to building grassroots capacities for winning elections.
An Environment Resistant to Internal Critique
Reluctant to break with the prevailing attitude of conformity, the committee has stayed under the Biden-Harris shadow all through this past year. Publishing such a report might have shown whether party leaders are interested to foster open debate about the strategic failures that enabled the former president to become president again. However, the DNC is proceeding under the pretense that there are no lessons to be learned from the stunning loss from the last cycle.
Our guiding principle: will this lead to victory? Should the answer be negative, it becomes a sideline issue from the core mission," a rationale that has been offered for withholding the analysis.
Critical Problems an Autopsy Would Have Examined
An autopsy report worth its salt would tackle head-on a series of difficult topics. These include:
- Voter Disenchantment: The loss of millions of voters who supported the Democratic ticket in 2020 proved pivotal in the narrowly decided recent race.
- A Decision to Seek Re-election: The unwavering choice by a party leader to run again, coupled with a very late step-aside, has been criticized as robbing the party's base of a genuine choice.
- Failing the Working-Class Base: During a time of economic anxiety, the campaign allegedly ceding to corporate donors' interests while failing to confront the impact of big business.
- A Gaza Effect: An unwillingness to adjust a policy position regarding the situation in Gaza allegedly caused driving away many voters, particularly among young people, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
- Losing Young Voter Backing: Extensive evidence demonstrates a significant decline of votes for the candidate among the youth electorate.
A Record Avoiding Accountability
The decision to withhold fits a longstanding habit of evading hard truths. It recalls an episode where nearly all elected Democrat in Washington went along with an incumbent's determination to running for re-election right up until a disastrous public debate performance compelled an exit.
Concurrently, overwhelming numbers of the electorate had been consistently telling pollsters that they opposed that candidate to be the nominee.
Financial Concerns
A substantive report could probe matters regarding campaign spending, including the amounts went to high-priced advisors and media firms during an electoral effort which expended a staggering war chest during the general election.
A Broader Implication
At its core, the secrecy regarding the analysis points to a deference to the existing power structure who engineered a disastrous national race. The message to ordinary supporters – including countless loyal volunteers – appears to be that they do not have a right to see the lessons party chiefs claim to have learned based on a report drawing from conversations with insiders.
An organization unwilling to honestly assess where it went wrong finds it difficult to climb out of the pattern that ended up being so helpful to the rival party.
