Let’s acknowledge, right out of the gate, that the usefulness of such assessments is, at best, disputable. After the Republicans issued an in-depth analysis following their 2012 election loss, conservative voters proceeded to ignore its central pillar takeaways at the very next opportunity, nominating Donald Trump for president in 2016. He defied expectations and won.Setting aside whether such things do any good, Democrats want to see what their own party produced after its decisive defeat at the polls nearly two years ago, in which Trump swept the battleground states and became the first Republican to win the national popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.
The fact that the DNC has bizarrely insisted on keeping this report shrouded in mystery has only focused more attention on its existence. Numerous elected officials and prominent figures have demanded its publication, echoing a widespread sentiment on the Left. Theories about what is being hidden abound. Among the most popular is the notion that the DNC is worried about being exposed on the issue of Gaza, as well as the idea that the autopsy could be too embarrassing to Kamala Harris, who may run again in 2028.
The idea that Democrats being insufficiently hostile to Israel as an electoral game-changer strikes me as highly dubious, even if it’s a base obsession. And plenty of Democrats would actually love to embarrass Harris into receding from the scene. Beyond that, she’s already put her spin on the race in an after-action memoir, and (as a notoriously lagging indicator) has endorsed releasing the report.
