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Clarence Page: Dems ruminate over an autopsy when they should be making hay

Clarence Page

It seemed to take forever, but on Thursday the Democratic National Committee finally released their autopsy of their ill-fated 2024 presidential campaign. It's bitter medicine, my Dem friends, but, as Momma used to say, take a spoonful, it'll do you good. As midterm elections loom, and as the party girds its loins for what will be a millennial battle to retake the White House, Democrats would do well to recall the great humorist Will Rogers' assessment of their 1924 convention, which is widely remembered as the longest and "wildest" in the nation's history. Although the Democrats that year initially saw opportunity in the division and corruption plaguing incumbent President Calvin Coolidge's Republican Party, they soon realized that their own coalition was even more divided. After 16 days and 103 ballots for the presidential nomination, the delegates in New York City's Madison Square Garden settled on John W. Davis, a conservative lawyer and congressman from West Virginia -- a supposed "compromise candidate," although he reportedly satisfied almost no one. After the chaotic convention, the Democrats lost badly to Coolidge in the 1924 presidential election under the Republicans' slogan "Coolidge or chaos." "Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats," Rogers observed. "If they agreed with each other, they'd be Republicans." That sounds familiar in these times, as most congressional Republicans carefully march in lock-step with Trump, even after his -- and I do mean "his" -- Justice Department and his IRS concocted a taxpayer-financed $1.776 billion slush fund that Trump will control. Although the details are not crystal clear, the fund's main function appears to be the compensation of the Jan. 6 rioters, all of whom Trump already has pardoned. This patent corruption does rankle some Republicans. Yet given Trump's recent displays of autocratic power within the party, by sponsoring the primary defeats of GOP stalwarts such as Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, few congressional Republicans will utter anything resembling a discouraging word about the president's abuses of office. This, as we approach the midterms, provides a wealth of material for Democrats to highlight, especially as Trump's approval ratings sink on traditional Republican strong suits such as the economy and foreign policy. "I don't think about Americans' financial situation," the president told reporters when commenting on his shockingly expensive own-goal war with Iran. "Not even a little bit." Meanwhile, he is spending lavishly on a White House ballroom/bunker and proposing a triumphal arch while ordinary families struggle to afford health insurance and pay their bills. He's making himself, his children and his cronies rich. With Republican lawmakers stuck on Trump's plantation, afraid to show their faces to voters in their districts, this seems like an ideal time for Democrats to make hay. Yet, the thing about the Democrats is that first they have to have an embarrassing public fight among themselves. Which brings us to the "autopsy," or after-action report of the party's shambolic loss in the 2024 presidential election. After months of hand wringing, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin released the document, bizarrely in an incomplete draft form, marked up with comments in red type such as "Claim contradicts public reporting" and "No sourcing provided." The mark-up comments read less like editorial interventions and more like dismissals of a hostile brief. Martin said the report had been withheld because it was shoddily done. Having read an earlier version, I agree up to a point, although many of the cited problems appear painfully obvious. Among them, party leaders underestimated the perils of President Joe Biden's decision to run for a second term at age 81, despite widespread concerns about his frailty. His sudden departure after a faltering debate performance led to his quick replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris, whom the Biden White House did not "position or prepare" in a way that would enable her to lead a winning campaign, according to the report. Among other problems, her campaign, according to the autopsy, did not foresee or prepare for such dirty pool as the attacks that came against her previous support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for prison inmates. ("Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.") Yes, as an old Chicago motto goes, "Politics ain't beanbag." Rather than delve into the autopsy's controversy, I'll simply relate a few salient quotations: "Going negative works (especially if voters know you)." "The male voter problem was solvable." Male voters -- especially those of color -- respond to direct engagement, and that wasn't achieved in 2024. "Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate." They didn't. "Harris struggled with definition beyond 'not Trump.' " "Irregular voters weren't feeling it." These are swing voters, and in too many states they went for Trump. "The enthusiasm gap was predictable." "Demographics aren't destiny. Latino voters shifted Republican nationally but Democratic in (North Carolina) with the right candidate. Context and execution matter." Rather than wallow in factional recriminations about past failures, Democrats should accentuate the positive. Through his many misdeeds, Trump has set the table for Democrats to present a new vision for government, one that could usher them to a historical mandate. There's a widespread fear that the next two elections will decide whether, to paraphrase Lincoln, government of, by and for the people will perish from the earth. But merely declaiming this to voters won't automatically produce the desired result. Voters need to see the party's vision, and recognize it as a direction they wish to go. Democrats have formulated such a vision before and sold it, even spectacularly, to the electorate. Now, with everything on the line, they have to get real, get unified and get to work. Email Clarence Page at clarence47page@gmail.com.

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