Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Tech Style & Beauty Kitchen & Dining Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeNP CommentJ.D. Tuccille: Democrats dismiss bad news about the party’s fortunes againA party-commissioned autopsy of the 2024 election offers good advice. Officials tried to bury itLast updated 18 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Torrick Ward wears a button with the face of Vice President Kamalas Harris at a meeting of volunteers who will be canvassing for Harris and other Democrats in Michigan and Wisconsin, Sunday, July 28, 2024, at the 49th Ward offices in Chicago. Photo by Erin Hooley /THE ASSOCIATED PRESSAs is their special talent, Democrats fumbled not just the 2024 national election, but also the political autopsy of mistakes made by party officials that led to their rejection by so many voters. Democratic National Commission Chair Ken Martin, who commissioned the after-action report, now claims that the clearly pre-publication draft of what he asked for “wasn’t ready for primetime.” Well, of course it wasn’t; whole sections, including the executive summary, had yet to be added. But the document’s real “flaws” appear to be highlighting the mistakes of a political party that thought it could ride to victory while spurning men, rural voters, effective communications strategies and anybody uninfected by identity politics. That’s just a bit more embarrassment than party leaders can swallow.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Accountor“I was elected Chair of the Democratic National Committee three months after one of the most painful and consequential election losses for Democrats in modern history. It was a punch to the gut, and people were pissed off,” Martin noted in a statement upon the reluctant release of the draft report, which the party commissioned and then sat on until CNN acquired and threatened to publish a copy.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againA “painful and consequential” election loss it certainly was, but the enforced errors were painfully obvious to anybody paying attention. In 2024, the incumbent president and presumed candidate for reelection was publicly revealed as a senile sock puppet for a “politburo” of backroom hacks. Vice President Kamala Harris, about whom many Americans had serious doubts, was anointed as his successor without any input from party members — in the process, kneecapping arguments that ultimately victorious Republican candidate Donald Trump posed a threat to democracy.That the reasons for the rough candidate transition from Joe Biden to Harris are barely mentioned underlines the fact that the report, prepared by political consultant Paul Rivera, is not exactly a brutal takedown of Democratic flaws. But it does call out some major failings.In the 16 years since Barack Obama won a landslide in the 2008 presidential election, “Democrats have lost ground at every level of government,” the report points out. Even where Democrats win contested races, “some of these elections were tighter than Democrats should be comfortable with” and “many of our critical Democratic wins can be attributed to negative partisanship — where Republicans have nominated deeply flawed candidates” creating situations where the GOP threw away races.Part of the problem is that “Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate.” But that meant giving up on millions of votes and creating an insurmountable barrier to victory. “You can’t lose rural areas by overwhelming margins and make it up elsewhere when rural voters are a significant share of the electorate.”Also, the report notes, “the Harris campaign appears to have focused heavily on women” and better results among male voters for other Democrats “suggests the national campaign had a specific problem with male voters.” Men must be directly engaged, not taken for granted or written off, the report adds.The party’s top-down approach came in for significant criticism. “The party has to decide whether it will continue to rely on the tactic of dropping people into states as opposed to hiring locally.” That puts the party’s messaging in play only when campaigns are in full swing, and it sacrifices local knowledge and connections. The report points to Turning Point USA as an example of a conservative operation worth emulating because it “is not a seasonal, churn and burn ecosystem” but is “always on” and present in communities.Ideology was also a big problem — specifically, identitarian social justice ideas that play well only among urban progressives who can’t carry national elections. A Trump campaign attack ad that “focused on the Vice President’s prior statements on transgendered Americans” was named as “very effective” because it relied on “her saying what she said.” Overall, the experience demonstrated that Democratic candidates should “focus less on abstract issues and identity politics, and connect with voters on the issues they say matter most.”Again, Rivera’s unfinished draft report isn’t a vicious takedown of Democrats. As is the left’s wont, it blames some problems on “misinformation and disinformation” in response to which the party has been “incapable of projecting strength, unity, and leadership.” That’s a lazy way of blaming inconvenient facts and clumsy communications, though it accepts some responsibility for the party’s ongoing woes.Even so, the autopsy’s criticism was too much for Martin and company. Every page sports a bright red disclaimer saying, in part, “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC.”As released to the public, the report contains snarky comments sniffing that “no sourcing” was provided for some claims, many of them patently obvious. Several times, the snarky comments insist that a point made in the text “contradicts public reporting” when that’s not true.That’s not to say there aren’t errors. There are mistakes in names, dates, percentages, and the like. The report obviously hasn’t been proofread or checked for facts. Then again, neither the executive summary nor the conclusion were written and a contact email address for the authors is a “XXXX@dnc.org” placeholder. The report was clearly buried before it was finished. This isn’t the first time the Democratic Party blamed the messenger for bearing bad news.As Rivera’s autopsy points out, the party commissioned a similar analysis after the 2022 midterm elections that proposed changes. Unfortunately for Democrats, “none of these recommendations were implemented on the proposed timeline, if at all,”After Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016, Politico reported that “House Democrats are going to extreme lengths to conceal a report on the party’s problems.”Democrats appear committed to making the same mistakes over and over.Right now, President Trump’s average approval rating is underwater by 19 points. Nearly identical shares of the population have unfavourable views of both Republicans (58 percent) and Democrats (59 percent). Twenty-six percent reject both parties.The question isn’t which party will win the next round of elections. It’s which will throw them away.National Post Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.