Takeaway from the DNC Autopsy - CNN

I found the CNN summary coherent and sobering and, personally, not surprising:

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Early in the report, it acknowledges that recent elections, including 2024, have been pretty close. And it acknowledges this might lead some Democrats to argue for changes around the edges rather than a wholesale re-thinking of the party’s approach. “This kind of thinking – denialist at its core – prevents the Party from seeking real accountability, and from making the changes we need to deliver on our promises to the American people,” the report says.

It says that since Barack Obama’s big 2008 win, the party has “vacillated between stagnation and retrogression.” And it notes that, on the whole, Democrats have steadily lost ground since Obama’s success. “These losses are the direct result of missed opportunities to invest in our states, counties, and local parties and candidates,” the report says.

It says Democratic “candidates have proven incapable of projecting strength, unity, and leadership, and voters have drifted away.”. And it says that when Democrats have won big races in recent years, the wins can often “be attributed to negative partisanship – where Republicans have nominated deeply flawed candidates.”

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It said failing to conduct that research, even while Harris as vice president was taking on difficult issues like immigration, “was a massive missed opportunity.”. “As a result, at the moment of the candidate switch the polling team discovered there was no self-research on the Vice President to guide the development of the research instruments,” the autopsy says.

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“Harris’s focus on college-educated suburbs left gaps [with Democratic North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein] at unwinnable levels.”
“Harris lagged in rural areas nationally, which proved to be insurmountable in swing states. … Harris wrote off rural America, assuming urban/suburban margins would compensate.”
“The Harris campaign appears to have relied on Trump being unacceptable rather than building an affirmative case for Harris.”

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It suggests a shift away from identity politics and towards middle-class appeal. It’s repeatedly cast as a crutch that Democrats need to move away from, in favor of kitchen-table issues like affordability and middle-class appeal.

More..

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/takeaways-dnc-autopsy-140008229.html