By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Democrats buried the truth and serious self-reflection in their “autopsy” about nothing
I must concede, I’ve never been wild about the term “autopsy” to encapsulate a post-disastrous election period of political self-reflection, preferring instead to call the phenomenon a time for otherwise bloated egos to pose hard questions, serve up enormous quantities of humility and then summon the willingness to accept sincere constructive criticism among the situationally blighted.
All political parties mess up, because they’re made up of selfish politicians who would rather keep doing the same things over and over again – and lose – than confess they ever did anything wrong.
Such was the case for Democrats after the 2024 election. Rather than point the finger at themselves and work to improve the way they do things, Democrats blamed everyone else – especially Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters – for the plain, cold hard fact that American voters chose a different, and better, alternative a year and a half ago.
Or, more concisely stated, Democrats, Americans just weren’t that into you.
Nevertheless, Democrats thought they’d committed to a personal therapy session by tasking a party establishmentarian with writing a report and then classifying it an “autopsy”, as though they’d actually broken skin and rummaged for organs during the unpleasant retrospective examination. Perhaps they would’ve been better off burying the resulting jumbled mess of political psychobabble instead.
In a newsletter entry titled, “The DNC autopsy: Did Democrats really want to know?” Byron York wrote earlier this week at the Washington Examiner:
“As far as what is in the autopsy, some parts are jaw-dropping in what appears to be intentional cluelessness. Take the discussion of the June 27, 2024, debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump. It was the turning point of the campaign and, of course, a catastrophe for the then-81-year-old Biden, whose cognitive decline became impossible to conceal…
“How did things like that happen? The autopsy should have been an opportunity to examine how the Democratic Party got itself into such a situation in 2024. Instead, the document is unfinished, sloppy, and lacking in curiosity about almost everything.
“There is a reason DNC chair Martin resisted releasing the autopsy for so long. Many assumed Martin was hiding an explosive document that would reveal his party’s political malpractice. But that’s not the reason. The reason is there is a lot about 2024 that the Democratic Party’s leadership didn’t want to know. Releasing the incomplete and ill-considered autopsy would show the world that the party never made a serious effort to understand its failure.”
Is any of this a shocker? By nature, liberals suppose they’re right about everything, blame the nearest convenient stooge if anything goes askew and have made an obsession out of hating on Donald Trump since he entered politics over a decade ago.
If Democrats truly figure they’re never wrong, then why would the party poohbahs commission an “autopsy” to determine the cause of “death” in 2024? Recall how confident and self-assured Democrats felt after their convention in August a couple years ago. They were certain that they’d executed a seamless switcheroo between doddering senile Joe Biden and the litter box-trained but not-ready-for-primetime persona of catty cackling Kamala Harris.
Democrats didn’t care a lick that Harris couldn’t succinctly recite her policy portfolio at the drop of a hat. Kamala didn’t need that agenda stuff or verifiable positions or evidence or even the ability to answer media questions in a cogent fashion. To liberals, Kamala was a black woman from the largest (population-wise) state in the nation! Her proverbial glove box came pre-stuffed with x number of electoral votes and all she’d need to do was reassure the country that Donald Trump was a January 6th-fostering goon and she’d be taking the oath of office in a few months’ hence!
By the same token, Democrats could safely tuck senile Joe into the background, and as long as he or Dr. Jill didn’t make too much noise, the voters would move on from the previous three-plus years and cackling Kamala could accept her rightful title as the first woman president! Remember those Facebook posts with heels?
Dang, according to Democrats, it was time for a chick to hear “Hail to the Chief” every time she entered a room, wasn’t it?
Democrats naturally presuppose voters (should) care about the same things they do. Listen to the old crows on “The View” and you’ll get an earful from the judgmental slouches about the topics of the hour and how the viewing audience should process political events.
In so doing, liberals fall into the same trap time after time. They struck electoral gold with Big Bubba Bill Clinton and “The One” Barack Obama. They figured the same personality-centered electoral formula was repeatable and foolproof. This explains their reaction to losing. Resist! Demonize! Demagogue! Smear!
An “autopsy”? For what? Don’t look back. You should never look back!
What Democrats really need is a no-(guano) assessment from someone outside their sphere, a person with absolutely zero incentive to help them yet still perfectly willing to hit them right between the eyes with the truth!
Therefore, here is my wholly subjective, very biased “autopsy” of the report put out by the DNC with enough disclaimers to render the document’s analysis and conclusions all-but useless:
Here goes: The Democrats lost in 2024 because cackling Kamala Harris, the Biden (lack of) brain trust and the Democrat establishment had become much more beholden to what I call the “Facebook liberals” and completely dismissed any and all connection to the common sensibilities and values of the working class. This includes pale-skinned members of the blue-collar sort, the type of human being that used to make up the base of the party of Big Government and mass social programs.
You know, the constituency that championed New Deal-type federal oversight and redistributionist policies. Democrats formerly paid attention to these folks and bent over backwards to pay lip service to them. They were Bill Clinton voters. They rejected country club Republicanism and despised Mitt Romney for allegedly being an out-of-touch elitist and flip-flopper.
But the “Facebook liberals” are much more rabid in their advocacy than the staid party establishment. The former group posts links and anti-Trump photos and probably get sore arms and shoulders from reaching behind to pat themselves on the back for how much they “care” about “rights” and “oppression” by the powerful class. They mean Trump. But they also include anyone who’s not a Democrat in their deviousness.
The “new” Democrats are the definition of intolerant. And judgmental. And more than willing to huddle the population into “us vs. them” ideological pens regardless of what people believe individually.
Therefore, a skillfully prepared “autopsy” would’ve included pointed critiques of Democrats’ and liberals’ attitudes regarding themselves and the issues they champion. “Common sense” is a frequently employed term to suggest Democrats must get some. They need an ombudsman for themselves. A political shrink. A soul soother.
And we’re not referring to James Carville here.
Republicans have needed the inward look at times, too. I had a liberal friend once who thought he did me a favor by digging deep and offering heartfelt “advice” so the Democrats’ opposition party could be brought up-to-date and compete in the post 20th century American political world.
This was after the 2012 election, when conservatives were mired in a foul mood facing the prospect of another four years of Barack Obama’s arrogant mug on TV news every day. Said well-intentioned friend basically asserted that to remain relevant as a second party, conservatives and limited government advocates must ditch the Republicans’ social positions and focus on granting amnesty to illegal aliens to appease the growing Hispanic population. In essence, the GOP should become an ancillary, slightly more conservative appendage of the Democrat Party.
With a serious look on his face, my buddy said he hoped the Republican Party would remake itself because America “needs two viable parties” and discover the road to electoral bliss simply by rejecting most of what the GOP currently stood for and permit themselves to progress to a novel interpretation of issues. It was okay to advocate for fiscal tightening, but not smaller government.
“The people want those services”, he lectured. His words still echo in my brain.
Um, no, I replied. If anything, Republicans needed to double down on the issues conservatives cared about, particularly cultural matters and law-based immigration. And pretend to really believe in them. Finding a demonstrated figurehead wouldn’t hurt. Along came Donald Trump, who probably had a similar realization right about then.
Democrats now enjoy a period of relative security, thinking the American economy is so screwed up that Americans will forget how awful they and their policies are as a party and vote them into power later this year anyway. Democrats didn’t try to discover what went wrong in the 2024 election with their lame “autopsy”.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. By that measure, Democrats are certifiably crazy.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .