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The action from the Democratic National Committee to suppress the public viewing of its own post-election analysis on the last presidential race is stunning yet not surprising. Averse to unpleasant candor, the Democrats' governing body behaves more like a publicity machine than a political organization focused on building a volunteer base to secure victories.

A Climate of Conformity

Unwilling to challenge the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the committee has continued under that legacy throughout this past year. Releasing the findings would have indicated that the leadership truly desire to promote 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 tragic debacle from the last cycle.

The top priority: is this good for winning elections? If not, it is an unnecessary diversion from our fundamental goal," a justification which was presented to justify concealing the report.

Key Issues an Autopsy Could Have Addressed

Any valuable post-mortem worth its salt would not dodge key points of failure. This encompasses:

• Electoral Alienation: The loss among millions of voters who voted for the party's candidate during the previous election proved pivotal during the tight recent race.
• The Choice to Run: The determined insistence of a party leader to stay in the race, alongside a last-minute withdrawal, has been criticized as robbing the party's base the chance for open primaries.
• Losing Touch With the Working-Class Base: During a time of economic anxiety, the electoral effort is criticized for bowing to elite contributors and not managing to confront the impact of profit-seeking.
• A Gaza Effect: An unwillingness to shift an approach on a ongoing war is cited as losing key demographic groups, notably with young people, Arab-Americans, Muslim voters.
• Losing Youth Allegiance: Extensive evidence shows a significant drop-off of votes for the candidate among young voters.

A Record Shunning Scrutiny

The decision to withhold aligns with a pattern to avoid uncomfortable facts. It echoes an episode in which the vast majority of Democratic officeholder in Congress supported an incumbent's insistence on seeking another term right up until a disastrous public debate performance compelled a reversal.

At the same time, a significant majority of Democratic voters had been consistently telling surveyors of their opposition to that candidate to seek re-election.

Campaign Spending Questions

A substantive autopsy might also examine questions about where money went, including the amounts flowed to party strategists and media firms during a campaign that burned through a colossal war chest during the general election.

A Underlying Problem

Fundamentally, the blockage surrounding this report points to a submission to the established hierarchy who engineered a losing presidential campaign. The message to ordinary supporters – which includes countless dedicated activists – is that they cannot have a right to know what the insiders claim to have learned based on an analysis based on conversations with insiders.

A political entity incapable to critically review where it went wrong will struggle to climb out of the cycle that proved so advantageous to the rival party.