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This move by the DNC to suppress the public viewing of its own autopsy report on the 2024 election is shocking yet to be expected. Averse to frank assessments, the DNC behaves more like a PR firm rather than an electoral entity focused on building grassroots capacities to secure victories.

An Environment That Avoids Dissent

Reluctant to depart from the party establishment's culture demanding unity, the DNC has remained within the Biden-Harris shadow throughout 2025. Publishing the findings could have demonstrated that party leaders are interested to promote honest conversation regarding the strategic failures which allowed the former president to return to the White House. However, the DNC is proceeding as if there are no lessons to be learned following the stunning loss of 2024.

"Here’s our North Star: will this lead to victory? Should the answer be negative, it becomes a sideline issue from what truly matters," an explanation that has been offered to justify concealing the analysis.

Major Failures a Report Would Have Explored

Any valuable post-mortem worth its salt would confront certain uncomfortable matters. Among them are:

• Electoral Disenchantment: The loss of millions of voters that backed the Democratic ticket in 2020 became a critical factor in the close recent race.
• A Choice to Run: The unwavering choice by a party leader to run again, and an extremely delayed withdrawal, is viewed as denying the party's base the chance for a genuine choice.
• Losing Touch With the Working-Class Base: Amid economic anxiety, the campaign is criticized for accommodating corporate donors' interests and not managing to confront the role of profit-seeking.
• The Foreign Policy Factor: The failure to adjust an approach on a major international conflict is cited as alienating many voters, especially with young people, Arab-Americans, and Muslim Americans.
• A Decline in Young Voter Backing: Extensive evidence indicates a huge decline in Democratic support among voters aged 18-29.

A Pattern Shunning Scrutiny

The decision to withhold is consistent with a pattern of sidestepping difficult realities. It echoes an episode in which the vast majority of Democratic officeholder in Washington went along with a sitting president's determination to seeking another term until a poor televised debate forced an exit.

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

Financial Concerns

A substantive autopsy could investigate questions about campaign spending, including how much money were directed to high-priced advisors and media firms over the course of a campaign that burned through a colossal amount over a few months.

The Larger Problem

Fundamentally, the secrecy of the official autopsy points to a deference toward the existing power structure who engineered a losing presidential campaign. The signal to ordinary supporters – including countless loyal volunteers – is that they do not have a right to understand the lessons party chiefs claim to have learned from hundreds of interviews based on feedback from all states.

A political entity unwilling to critically review its mistakes will struggle to break free from the rut that ended up being so helpful to the rival party.