This action by the Democratic National Committee to withhold the publication regarding its own autopsy report concerning the last presidential race is stunning however entirely predictable. Resistant to frank assessments, the party's leadership apparatus operates more like a publicity machine than an electoral entity devoted to building a volunteer base for winning elections.
A Culture Resistant to Internal Critique
Reluctant to depart from the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the committee has stayed within that legacy throughout this past year. Publishing such a report would have indicated whether the leadership truly desire to encourage public discourse about the errors that paved the way for Donald Trump to win re-election. However, the leadership is moving forward as if there is little to glean following the tragic debacle from the last cycle.
"Here’s our North Star: will this lead to victory? If the answer is no, it is an unnecessary diversion from the core mission," an explanation reportedly given to justify concealing the report.
Major Failures an Autopsy Might Have Explored
An autopsy report of substance would confront a series of difficult topics. These include:
- Voter Disenchantment: Failing to retain among a significant portion of the electorate who voted for the party's candidate during the previous election proved pivotal during the tight recent race.
- A Insistence to Run: The unwavering choice by the incumbent to stay in the race, and a last-minute withdrawal, is viewed as robbing the party's base of open primaries.
- Losing Touch With the Working-Class Base: Amid rising costs, the campaign allegedly bowing to corporate donors' interests without successfully attempting to address the role of corporate greed.
- The Foreign Policy Impact: An unwillingness to shift a stance concerning a ongoing war is cited as driving away key demographic groups, notably among young people, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
- Losing Young Voter Backing: Research demonstrates a major decrease of support for the party among the youth electorate.
A Pattern Shunning Scrutiny
This refusal aligns with a longstanding habit of sidestepping hard truths. It echoes a dynamic where the vast majority of elected Democrat in Congress supported a sitting president's determination to seeking another term until a catastrophic televised debate forced a reversal.
Concurrently, a significant majority within the party's base were consistently telling surveyors of their opposition to that candidate to run again.
Campaign Spending Issues
An honest autopsy could examine issues about where money went, including the amounts flowed to party strategists as well as advertising contractors over the course of a campaign that burned through a staggering war chest over a few months.
A Underlying Problem
Fundamentally, the secrecy surrounding this report is symptomatic of a submission toward party leaders who engineered a losing electoral effort. The implication to ordinary supporters – which includes countless small donors – appears to be that they cannot be trusted to understand what party chiefs have learned from a report compiled from extensive interviews.
An organization unable to critically review its own failings is unlikely to break free from the pattern that ended up being so helpful to the rival party.
