Why the DNC Is Hiding the 2024 Autopsy

Because you can’t rebuild a party when you can’t find two supporters on a construction site.

Picture a homeowner who discovers a foundation crack. He notices the basement is damp and the beams are stressed. The inspector reports back that the house is not in good shape and lets him know what needs fixing.

Instead of acting on this, the homeowner throws the report away. He then paints the house, gets new curtains and tells his family not to worry. He’s putting the house on the market next week. Letting anyone know about the structural issues would be a major distraction.

This is exactly what the DNC is doing by refusing to release the 2024 election autopsy.

You don’t need to be a political junkie to get why this pisses people off. If you’ve worked a real job, paid bills or watched an institution tell you “everything is FINE!” while your gut and experience say otherwise.

Go to any construction site in this country (even in blue states). Talk to ten workers. You’ll be pressed to find two that believe the Democrats actually have their back. Not because they love monopolies, middlemen or any part of the tollbooth economy that constantly squeezes them. It’s because the party doesn’t talk like it knows them, respects them or fights for them. It’s incredibly obvious.

This is the foundation problem. Everything else is paint.

Ken Martin and the DNC say releasing the 2024 election autopsy would be a distraction. They say they’re already “putting the learnings into motion.” They point to a series of off-off year election wins and ask why anyone would want to relitigate the past.

But they’re missing the point. This isn’t about 2024. It’s about 2026, 2028 and beyond. It’s about understanding why Democrats pay the “Democratic Penalty” … the 10–15 point hit Dem candidates take in swing states the moment a “D” gets attached to their name.

It’s all about messaging, they say. But we’ve seen how the party actually behaves when a candidate doesn’t fit the traditional and approved mold.

A few months ago, party insiders were happy to leak humiliating research about Graham Platner because he doesn’t fit the consultant class’s picture of a US Senate candidate.

The instinct to go after outsiders and protect insiders isn’t an accident. This is how the system is designed to work.

So of course the DNC didn’t want the autopsy public. The report would be good for people like Graham Platner and bad for traditional, establishment Dems. It would force an honest conversation about who the party is listening to and who it isn’t.

It’s the “Rob from Texas” problem.

When I started the Driscoll Globe a few months ago, I wrote about a guy in the New York Times comment section who nailed the party’s crisis better than any $1K-an-hour strategist in DC could do.

His point was very simple: trust is gone. Voters don’t trust Democrats to pick candidates that speak to them and they don’t trust them to stay in the fight when things get tough.

Hiding the 2024 election autopsy proves Rob from Texas right. It tells voters: you’re children. You can’t handle the truth. Keep trusting us.

But they are out of touch. The party is calibrated for intellectuals in Brooklyn and the professional class of donors. It’s not built for the 60-year-old woman without a college degree who decides elections.

The party is more fluent in identity language than economic power. It excels at managing decline more than naming the real villains. This is why this moment is so important. The success of the party in the 2030s is decided now.

American politics is undergoing a major shift. Old coalitions are breaking and new ones are forming. People feel squeezed, ignored and angry. They see a system that’s benefiting AI, landlords and soon-to-be trillionaires. All while they’re told to be patient and grateful.

Democrats in Congress have a record-low approval around 18%. Fewer than 1 in 6 voters approve of the party’s performance. This isn’t just a messaging issue, it’s a legitimacy problem.

Compare this to FDR in the 1930s. He didn’t respond to the Great Depression by just talking. He didn’t hide reports to preserve harmony (and the party was way more fragmented back then).

He made conflict visible. He called out the “economic royalists.” He empowered people like Thurman Arnold to go after utility monopolies that were bleeding Americans dry.

FDR understood something that today’s party leadership doesn’t get: in moments of upheaval, people don’t want a manager. They want someone who believes enough to fight.

Instead the DNC is choosing short-term comfort over long-term survival. They’re hoping that a few strong election nights, and not being the Republicans, will be enough to hold the coalition together.

Spoiler: it’s not.

You can’t rebuild trust while hiding the truth. You can’t build a 21st-century political coalition if you’re too scared to admit why the last one didn’t work.

You can’t fix a cracked foundation by painting the siding and hope nobody notices the smell from the basement.

The Republicans released an autopsy after the 2012 election. They were off on a lot, which became clear after Donald Trump’s hostile takeover four years later. But at least they had the guts to look at the tape.

If Democrats and the DNC want to win over the long term, the only way forward is honesty. Complete honesty. It’s time to risk discomfort now to avoid a shellacking later.

We can’t afford to have another Donald Trump. The next one will be worse. Have the cajones to release the report. Let’s examine where the rot is and fix it.

Before the house collapses and voters decide they’re done trusting you.