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The move from the Democratic National Committee to suppress the publication regarding its internal autopsy report on the 2024 election seems stunning but entirely predictable. Averse to hard truths, the party's leadership apparatus often functions more like a communications shop than an electoral entity devoted to cultivating grassroots capacities for winning elections.

A Culture of Conformity

Hesitant to depart from the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has remained within the Biden-Harris shadow all through this past year. Making public such a report might have shown whether the leadership are interested to encourage public discourse regarding the errors that enabled the former president to return to the White House. Yet, the committee is acting as if there are no lessons to be learned following the tragic debacle of 2024.

Our guiding principle: is this good for winning elections? Should the answer be negative, it becomes a sideline issue from what truly matters," a justification that has been offered for withholding the document.

Key Issues a Report Would Have Examined

A genuine analysis of substance would tackle head-on certain uncomfortable matters. These include:

• Electoral Alienation: The loss of millions of voters who voted for the Democratic ticket in 2020 proved pivotal during the tight recent race.
• The Decision to Run: The stubborn insistence of the incumbent to seek re-election, and a last-minute exit, has been criticized as robbing Democratic voters of a competitive nomination process.
• Failing Everyday Americans: Amid rising costs, the campaign reportedly ceding to elite contributors and not managing to address the role of profit-seeking.
• The Foreign Policy Factor: An unwillingness to reconsider an approach on a major international conflict reportedly led to losing many voters, particularly with young people, Arab-Americans, Muslim voters.
• A Decline in Youth Allegiance: Polling data indicates a huge drop-off in votes for the candidate among voters aged 18-29.

A Pattern of Evasion

The decision to withhold is consistent with a pattern of evading uncomfortable facts. It echoes a dynamic where nearly all elected Democrat in Washington acquiesced to an incumbent's determination to running for re-election until a poor televised debate led to a reversal.

Meanwhile, large majorities within the party's base were consistently telling pollsters of their opposition to the incumbent to seek re-election.

Financial Issues

A substantive report could examine matters about where money went, including what sums went to insider consultants as well as advertising contractors during a campaign which expended an enormous sum during the general election.

A Broader Implication

Fundamentally, the suppression of the official autopsy points to an allegiance to the existing power structure who engineered an unsuccessful electoral effort. The signal for ordinary supporters – including millions of dedicated activists – appears to be that they cannot have a right to know the lessons party chiefs have learned based on an analysis drawing from conversations with insiders.

An organization incapable to critically review its own failings finds it difficult to break free from the pattern that proved so advantageous to the rival party.