The move by the DNC to suppress the release of its internal post-election analysis on the last presidential race is remarkable however to be expected. Opposed to unpleasant candor, the party's leadership apparatus behaves more like a PR firm than an electoral entity focused on building a volunteer base to secure victories.
A Culture of Conformity
Unwilling to challenge the prevailing attitude demanding unity, the DNC has stayed under the Biden-Harris shadow throughout this past year. Making public such a report would have indicated that party leaders truly desire to promote public discourse about the errors that enabled Donald Trump to become president again. However, the committee is acting as if there is little to glean from the electoral catastrophe from the last cycle.
"Here’s our North Star: will this lead to victory? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from our fundamental goal," a rationale that has been offered for withholding the report.
Critical Problems an Analysis Could Have Addressed
A genuine analysis with any value would tackle head-on a series of difficult topics. These include:
- Electoral Disengagement: Failing to retain of millions of voters who voted for the Democratic ticket during the previous election was decisive in the narrowly decided recent race.
- The Choice to Seek Re-election: The stubborn insistence of a party leader to run again, alongside an extremely delayed step-aside, has been criticized as denying the party's base of a genuine choice.
- Losing Touch With Core Democratic Voters: While facing inflation, the electoral effort is criticized for bowing to powerful financial backers and not managing to challenge the effects of corporate greed.
- The Foreign Policy Factor: The failure to shift a stance concerning the situation in Gaza allegedly caused alienating key demographic groups, especially with young people, Arab American communities, Muslim voters.
- Eroding Young Voter Allegiance: Research shows a major decrease in votes for the candidate from the youth electorate.
A History Shunning Scrutiny
The decision to withhold fits a pattern of evading hard truths. It recalls a situation in which virtually every Democratic officeholder in Congress supported a sitting president's insistence on running for re-election until a poor televised debate forced a reversal.
Meanwhile, large majorities of the electorate were continually telling pollsters that they did not want the incumbent to be the nominee.
Campaign Spending Concerns
An honest report could probe issues regarding financial allocations, including the amounts flowed to high-priced advisors as well as ad buyers during an electoral effort that burned through an enormous sum during the general election.
A Broader Issue
At its core, the secrecy regarding the analysis points to a deference toward the established hierarchy responsible for a disastrous electoral effort. The signal to the party's base – which includes countless loyal volunteers – appears to be that they cannot be trusted to see what the leadership say they discovered from hundreds of interviews compiled from conversations with insiders.
A party unable to honestly assess its own failings finds it difficult to break free from the cycle which was so helpful to the winning candidate.
