The move from the Democratic National Committee to block the public viewing of its internal autopsy report on the last presidential race seems shocking but to be expected. Resistant to hard truths, the Democrats' governing body behaves more like a publicity machine than an electoral entity committed to building local power capable of prevailing at the polls.
An Environment Resistant to Internal Critique
Unwilling to break with the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the committee has stayed under that legacy throughout this past year. Publishing an official autopsy might have shown that party leaders truly desire to foster open debate about the missteps that paved the way for Donald Trump to win re-election. However, the leadership is moving forward under the pretense that there are no lessons to understand from the electoral catastrophe 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 our fundamental goal," a rationale reportedly given for withholding the document.
Critical Problems an Autopsy Would Have Explored
An autopsy report worth its salt would confront a series of difficult topics. These include:
- Electoral Disengagement: The loss of millions of voters who supported the Democratic ticket during the previous election became a critical factor in the narrowly decided recent race.
- The Choice to Run: The unwavering decision of a party leader to run again, alongside a last-minute exit, is seen by some as denying Democratic voters of a genuine choice.
- Losing Touch With Core Democratic Voters: During a time of economic anxiety, the campaign allegedly bowing to powerful financial backers without successfully attempting to confront the effects of corporate greed.
- A Foreign Policy Effect: The refusal to adjust an approach regarding a ongoing war is cited as losing many voters, particularly with young people, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
- Losing Youth Backing: Extensive evidence demonstrates a huge decrease of support for the party from voters aged 18-29.
A History of Evasion
Choosing secrecy is consistent with a longstanding habit of sidestepping difficult realities. It echoes an episode in which virtually every Democratic officeholder in Washington supported a sitting president's insistence on running for re-election until a catastrophic campaign event forced an exit.
Concurrently, large majorities of Democratic voters had been consistently telling pollsters that they did not want the incumbent to be the nominee.
Campaign Spending Issues
A thorough autopsy might also investigate questions about campaign spending, such as the amounts went to party strategists as well as ad buyers during a campaign which expended a staggering war chest over a few months.
The Underlying Issue
At its core, the suppression of the official autopsy is symptomatic of an allegiance to the existing power structure responsible for a losing electoral effort. The implication to ordinary supporters – which includes countless dedicated activists – is that they do not be trusted to understand the lessons the leadership say they discovered based on a report based on feedback from all states.
An organization unwilling to publicly examine where it went wrong is unlikely to climb out of the cycle that proved so helpful to their opponents.
