The Reason the Democratic Party Refuses to Release its Post-Mortem Report on the 2024 Race: The Inside Story.

This decision by the Democratic National Committee to suppress the publication regarding its own post-election analysis on the 2024 election is shocking but not surprising. Averse to frank assessments, the DNC behaves more like a communications shop than a political organization focused on cultivating local power capable of prevailing at the polls.

An Environment Resistant to Internal Critique

Hesitant to challenge the prevailing attitude of conformity, the DNC has remained under the Biden-Harris shadow all through this past year. Making public such a report might have shown that the leadership are interested to foster honest conversation regarding the errors which allowed the former president to become president again. Instead, the DNC is proceeding under the pretense that there's nothing to glean from the tragic debacle of 2024.

"Here’s our North Star: will this lead to victory? If not, it is an unnecessary diversion from the core mission," a justification reportedly given to justify concealing the report.

Major Failures a Report Might Have Examined

An autopsy report worth its salt would tackle head-on key points of failure. These include:

• Electoral Disenchantment: Losing among millions of voters that backed the Democratic ticket during the previous election was decisive in the narrowly decided recent race.
• The Choice to Seek Re-election: The stubborn choice by the incumbent to seek re-election, coupled with a very late exit, is viewed as robbing the party's base of a genuine choice.
• Failing Core Democratic Voters: During a time of rising costs, the campaign is criticized for ceding to powerful financial backers while failing to address the impact of corporate greed.
• A Gaza Effect: An unwillingness to adjust a stance regarding a major international conflict allegedly caused driving away significant blocs, notably with youth voters, Arab American communities, Muslim voters.
• Losing Young Voter Support: Research demonstrates a major decrease in votes for the candidate among the youth electorate.

A Pattern of Evasion

Choosing secrecy aligns with a longstanding habit to avoid difficult realities. It echoes a dynamic in which the vast majority of elected Democrat in Washington acquiesced to an incumbent's decision for seeking another term right up until a catastrophic televised debate led to a reversal.

Concurrently, overwhelming numbers of the electorate had been repeatedly informing researchers that they opposed that candidate to seek re-election.

Financial Questions

A substantive autopsy would also probe matters regarding campaign spending, including what sums went to high-priced advisors and advertising contractors over the course of a campaign that burned through a staggering amount during the general election.

The Broader Implication

At its core, the blockage regarding the analysis points to a deference toward the existing power structure responsible for a disastrous presidential campaign. The message for the party's base – including millions of small donors – is that they do not be trusted to see the lessons the leadership claim to have learned based on a report drawing from feedback from all states.

An organization unable to publicly examine where it went wrong is unlikely to escape the rut which was so beneficial to the winning candidate.