This move by the DNC to withhold the release of its internal post-election analysis on the last presidential race appears remarkable but to be expected. Averse to frank assessments, the Democrats' governing body often functions more like a publicity machine than an electoral entity focused on building grassroots capacities capable of prevailing at the polls.
A Climate Resistant to Internal Critique
Unwilling to depart from the party establishment's culture of conformity, the committee has stayed under that legacy all through this past year. Releasing such a report might have shown whether the leadership truly desire to encourage public discourse regarding the missteps that paved the way for the former president to become president again. Instead, the DNC is proceeding under the pretense that there's nothing to understand from the electoral catastrophe from the last cycle.
Our guiding principle: does this help us win? Should the answer be negative, it is an unnecessary diversion from the core mission," an explanation which was presented for withholding the analysis.
Major Failures an Analysis Would Have Addressed
Any valuable post-mortem of substance would tackle head-on certain uncomfortable matters. This encompasses:
- Electoral Disengagement: The loss among a significant portion of the electorate that backed the party's candidate during the previous election proved pivotal in the narrowly decided recent race.
- A Decision to Seek Re-election: The stubborn decision of the incumbent to run again, and a very late exit, has been criticized as denying the party's base of open primaries.
- Losing Touch With Everyday Americans: Amid rising costs, the campaign is criticized for ceding to elite contributors and not managing to confront the effects of corporate greed.
- A Foreign Policy Factor: The failure to reconsider a policy position on a major international conflict allegedly caused losing many voters, particularly with young people, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
- Eroding Youth Support: Polling data shows a huge decline of support for the party among voters aged 18-29.
A Record Shunning Scrutiny
This refusal is consistent with a pattern of evading uncomfortable facts. It recalls a situation where nearly all Democratic officeholder in Washington acquiesced to a sitting president's insistence on seeking another term right up until a catastrophic televised debate led to a reversal.
Concurrently, a significant majority within the party's base had been consistently telling surveyors that they opposed the incumbent to run again.
Financial Concerns
An honest analysis could probe questions regarding where money went, such as how much money flowed to high-priced advisors and media firms over the course of a campaign which expended a staggering sum in a short period.
The Larger Implication
Fundamentally, the secrecy regarding the analysis highlights a deference toward the established hierarchy responsible for a losing national race. The signal to rank-and-file members – which includes millions of small donors – is that they cannot have a right to know the lessons the leadership have learned based on an analysis drawing from extensive interviews.
A party incapable to publicly examine where it went wrong is unlikely to climb out of the pattern which was so beneficial to the rival party.
