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This move by the Democratic National Committee to suppress the release regarding its own autopsy report on the last presidential race seems stunning yet entirely predictable. Resistant to hard truths, the party's leadership apparatus behaves more like a publicity machine than an electoral entity focused on building a volunteer base for winning elections.

An Environment of Conformity

Reluctant to challenge the prevailing attitude demanding unity, the DNC has continued within that legacy throughout this past year. Making public the findings might have shown whether the leadership actually want to foster honest conversation about the missteps which allowed Donald Trump to win re-election. Instead, the DNC is proceeding as if there is little to glean following the tragic debacle of 2024.

Our guiding principle: is this good for winning elections? Should the answer be negative, it is an unnecessary diversion from what truly matters," an explanation which was presented to justify concealing the analysis.

Major Failures an Autopsy Could Have Examined

Any valuable post-mortem worth its salt would confront key points of failure. These include:

• Voter Alienation: Failing to retain of millions of voters who supported the party's candidate in 2020 was decisive in the narrowly decided 2024 election.
• A Insistence to Run: The determined decision by a party leader to run again, coupled with a last-minute withdrawal, has been criticized as robbing the party's base the chance for a competitive nomination process.
• Failing Everyday Americans: During a time of economic anxiety, the electoral effort reportedly bowing to corporate donors' interests while failing to challenge the impact of corporate greed.
• The Gaza Factor: The refusal to reconsider an approach regarding a ongoing war allegedly caused driving away many voters, notably with youth voters, Arab American communities, Muslim voters.
• A Decline in Young Voter Support: Extensive evidence demonstrates a major drop-off of votes for the candidate from voters aged 18-29.

A History Avoiding Accountability

Choosing secrecy fits a pattern of sidestepping uncomfortable facts. It recalls an episode where virtually every Democratic officeholder in Congress acquiesced to an incumbent's insistence on running for re-election right up until a poor televised debate led to a reversal.

Concurrently, a significant majority of Democratic voters had been continually telling researchers that they opposed that candidate to seek re-election.

Campaign Spending Questions

An honest analysis could investigate matters regarding campaign spending, including how much money went to high-priced advisors as well as advertising contractors during a campaign that managed to spend a staggering sum during the general election.

The Larger Issue

At its core, the suppression of the official autopsy highlights an allegiance toward the established hierarchy who engineered an unsuccessful national race. The message for ordinary supporters – which includes millions of dedicated activists – appears to be that they do not have a right to know the lessons the leadership claim to have learned based on hundreds of interviews based on conversations with insiders.

A political entity unwilling to honestly assess where it went wrong will struggle to break free from the rut that ended up being so beneficial to the winning candidate.