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The decision from the DNC to block the public viewing of its own autopsy report on the 2024 election seems stunning however entirely predictable. Opposed to frank assessments, the Democrats' governing body operates closer to a PR firm rather than a political organization committed to building grassroots capacities capable of prevailing at the polls.

An Environment That Avoids Dissent

Reluctant to depart from the prevailing attitude demanding unity, the committee has continued under the Biden-Harris shadow all through this past year. Publishing the findings could have demonstrated whether party leaders actually want to promote honest conversation about the strategic failures that paved the way for the former president to return to the White House. Yet, the committee is acting under the pretense that there are no lessons to be learned from the tragic debacle of 2024.

Our guiding principle: is this good for winning elections? If the answer is no, it becomes a sideline issue from our fundamental goal," a rationale reportedly given for withholding the document.

Key Issues an Autopsy Might Have Examined

An autopsy report with any value would confront a series of difficult topics. This encompasses:

• Voter Disenchantment: Losing among millions of voters who supported the Democratic ticket during the previous election was decisive in the close recent race.
• The Decision to Run: The determined insistence by the incumbent to stay in the race, and a very late withdrawal, is viewed as denying the party's base of a genuine choice.
• Losing Touch With the Working-Class Base: Amid inflation, the campaign allegedly accommodating powerful financial backers without successfully attempting to confront the role of profit-seeking.
• A Foreign Policy Effect: The refusal to reconsider a stance concerning a major international conflict allegedly caused losing key demographic groups, particularly with young people, Arab-Americans, Muslim voters.
• Eroding Youth Support: Extensive evidence shows a significant drop-off in Democratic support from young voters.

A Record Shunning Scrutiny

This refusal is consistent with a recurring tendency of evading difficult realities. This mirrors a situation in which virtually every elected Democrat in Congress supported a sitting president's insistence on seeking another term until a catastrophic campaign event forced an exit.

At the same time, overwhelming numbers of the electorate were continually telling surveyors that they did not want that candidate to be the nominee.

Financial Questions

A substantive report might also probe matters regarding campaign spending, including the amounts were directed to insider consultants as well as advertising contractors over the course of a campaign that managed to spend a colossal sum in a short period.

A Broader Problem

At its core, the secrecy surrounding this report highlights an allegiance to the established hierarchy that oversaw a losing presidential campaign. The message to the party's base – which includes millions of small donors – appears to be that they cannot be trusted to know what the insiders claim to have learned based on hundreds of interviews based on conversations with insiders.

A party unable to publicly examine its own failings is unlikely to escape the pattern that proved so helpful to the rival party.