The Democrats need to get over themselves

Well, the much-ballyhooed autopsy on the 2024 election has arrived from Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, and it is a shame it didn’t stay buried in a trashcan in one of their offices deep inside the Beltway, and as far away from real people as possible.

Before moving on just as quickly as I can, from this unmitigated mess of typos, redactions, double-talking and sniping — and better yet, the leadership who allowed it — I want to underline some finer points, and hard-earned lessons we can take from it, and the disastrous 2024 campaign season.

First, given all the unprofessionalism, money-wasting, bickering, and out and out dysfunction in the party, it’s a wonder Kamala Harris didn’t lose by 25 points. It is clear that because of a series of self-inflicted wounds, the Democrats were not ready to do battle during the most important election in U.S. history.

That is tragic.

The report, and the way Democratic leadership comported itself, is truly embarrassing. Anybody who was a part of it, needs to be banished, and never allowed near a campaign again.

They’ve helped elect enough Republicans.

In the wake of of the report’s release Thursday I typed this in a huff on social media:

1) The dysfunctional DNC is a major problem for the party, not an answer.
2) Navel-gazing, self-doubt and sniping like this are what damaged the party in the first place.
3) The autopsy itself is a joke and illustrates how out of touch the Inside the Beltway party “hierarchy” is with voters. There is no mention of Biden’s advanced age, going back on his promise not to run again, Israel, Gaza, the pick of Walz for VP, or the shitshow that resulted in Harris getting all of 100 days to run. All factored heavily in the terrible outcome.
4) Read No. 1 again.

I stand behind all of that now.

But there is a sliver of good news here ...

Maybe the people who have been claiming the election was somehow stolen will finally go quiet, and use their considerable energy to start focusing on the myriad problems within the party that so severely mucked up that crucial election.

Look, if it helped you to believe Trump stole the election in its gory aftermath, I won’t judge, I really won’t. Those were some very hard times emotionally, and our sensibilities had just taken a severe pounding by a lewd racist and his soulless cult who have no standards, and an unlimited capacity to always go lower.

That has to stop now. Too much is on the line.

If after everything we’ve learned from Democratic leadership itself, you are still repeating this hogwash, I want to tell you gently that you sound a lot like the people on the Right who are still hollering about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump.

That just isn’t a good look, and I am doing you a favor telling you this.

By implying the 2024 election was swiped away from Democrats you are also implying that the party, starting with Kamala Harris, had evidence it somehow was, and decided for some bizarre reason not to pursue it, and to just forget the whole thing.

That would be absolutely catastrophic, of course, and leaves me wondering why you would support a party that is incapable of defending itself from the greatest heist in world history. Your issue should be with the party, not the boogeymen who allegedly somehow stole the election.

Even I, a steady critic of recent DNC leadership, don’t believe this happened in a million years. They ran an inept campaign, have admitted it in so many millions of jumbled words, and are even now still bashing away at each other, and pointing fingers.

The party is a mess, and most Americans know this. Thankfully, they aren’t real hot on the Republican Party right now, either.

Frankly, my real ire here is not directed at those who believe in these conspiracy theories, but the hucksters who are still lining their pockets by preying on people’s hurt and anguish by spreading all this manure. They know who they are and should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, they won’t be, because they have proven to be no better than the troublemaking trolls on the Right who do the same thing.

Thankfully, most of this is contained to the spurious realm of social media, and in the dark corners of Substack, and other content-providers, where too many facts go to die, and people deal in impulse and emotion, not reason.

By implementing MAGA’s playbook to complete their grift, these phonies are preventing people from doing the truly important work of processing what really happened, and demanding better from the leadership of a party that clearly has no sense of itself.

The DNC is a complete wreck, and if that surprises you, then it really is time for you to start paying attention, and stop with all the stupid conspiracy theories.

Now some truly good news:

Despite all this madness, Democratic candidates have been winning one election after another since the 2024 nightmare, because America under Trump has been an unmitigated disaster area, and roughly 65 percent of the American electorate knows it.

While voters are still cool on Democrats, they have seen about enough of Trump II: The Disaster Area.

So before I get out of here, a quick question:

Is the DNC even needed?

As a new resident to the state of North Carolina, I plan to attend my first meeting with Democrats down here this week. I will be interested to see what party long-timers here are saying about this autopsy and the state of the so-called party leadership — if it is even addressed at all.

(NOTE: If it isn’t, I plan to make sure it is. I will not work with a party that refuses to work on itself, and position itself properly for the November election and beyond. Too much is at stake.)

Democrats need to do a better job of framing their message, and shouting out all the good things they stand for instead of re-litigating the 2024 election, claiming it was stolen, and punching themselves in the face. Trump’s Republicans should be easy to beat in November because they have nothing to run on.

The asinine release of this mess of an autopsy when Democrats have actually been getting some momentum, is proof Democratic leadership STILL hasn’t learned.

They are ineffective, useless, and hurting a helluva lot more than they are helping.

Can’t we all at least agree we deserve better than this?

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.