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This move by the Democratic National Committee to suppress the public viewing regarding its internal autopsy report on the last presidential race seems remarkable but not surprising. Resistant to hard truths, the party's leadership apparatus often functions more like a publicity machine rather than a political organization focused on building a volunteer base to secure victories.

An Environment of Conformity

Unwilling to break with the prevailing attitude demanding unity, the DNC has remained within that legacy throughout this past year. Making public such a report might have shown that the leadership truly desire to promote honest conversation regarding the strategic failures that paved the way for Donald Trump to become president again. However, the committee is acting under the pretense that there are no lessons to glean from the stunning loss from the last cycle.

The top priority: will this lead to victory? If the answer is no, it is an unnecessary diversion from our fundamental goal," a justification that has been offered to justify concealing the analysis.

Key Issues a Report Could Have Addressed

Any valuable post-mortem worth its salt would not dodge certain uncomfortable matters. This encompasses:

• Voter Disengagement: The loss of a significant portion of the electorate who supported the party's candidate during the previous election became a critical factor in the narrowly decided recent race.
• The Decision to Run: The stubborn choice of a party leader to stay in the race, and an extremely delayed exit, has been criticized as denying Democratic voters of a competitive nomination process.
• Abandoning Core Democratic Voters: During a time of rising costs, the campaign allegedly accommodating corporate donors' interests while failing to confront the role of big business.
• The Gaza Factor: The failure to reconsider a stance on a ongoing war allegedly caused driving away many voters, especially among youth voters, Arab American communities, and Muslim Americans.
• A Decline in Youth Backing: Polling data shows a significant drop-off of support for the party among young voters.

A Record Avoiding Accountability

Choosing secrecy aligns with a longstanding habit of sidestepping difficult realities. This mirrors an episode in which the vast majority of elected Democrat in Washington went along with a sitting president's decision for running for re-election until a catastrophic campaign event forced an exit.

Concurrently, overwhelming numbers within the party's base were consistently telling surveyors that they opposed that candidate to be the nominee.

Campaign Spending Questions

A thorough report would also examine questions regarding financial allocations, including the amounts were directed to insider consultants as well as media firms during a campaign that burned through a staggering war chest during the general election.

A Broader Implication

At its core, the suppression of the official autopsy points to an allegiance toward the established hierarchy who engineered an unsuccessful electoral effort. The implication for ordinary supporters – including countless small donors – appears to be that they do not be trusted to know what the leadership have learned from an analysis drawing from conversations with insiders.

An organization incapable to critically review where it went wrong is unlikely to climb out of the rut that proved so helpful to their opponents.