Gaza Wasn’t the Biggest Omission in the Democrats’ 2024 Autopsy
There is a disclaimer early in the autopsy noting that “this document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC.” The first question should be obvious: If this isn’t the DNC’s view of what went wrong in 2024, then just what are we doing here? The second question is just as straightforward: Just who is the author? It’s Paul Rivera, a longtime Democratic strategist and friend of DNC Chair Ken Martin. He is also, as many people have noted, a fixture of New York’s notoriously corrupt and incompetent Democratic Party and worked as an aide for state Senator John Sampson, who was convicted on charges of obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents in 2015. (Rivera resigned shortly before Sampson’s arrest.) It’s not clear why Rivera was tapped for this important job, aside from the fact that he was available and seemingly willing to work for free. He hadn’t worked on a presidential campaign since John Kerry’s in 2004.
Rivera clearly wasn’t up for the task, but the autopsy contains some critiques—mostly vague or incoherent—over voter targeting. It suggests that Trump’s anti-trans ad, “Kamala is for they/them, I am for you,” was especially effective, and observed that the Harris campaign didn’t do enough to try to capture rural voters. Mostly, though, it consists of platitudes, such as: “At times, it seems Democrats are trying to win arguments while Republicans are focused on winning elections. Democrats operate in an ecosystem defined by reason even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage.”
The right, the report claims, is “always on,” but Democrats are not. What does that mean? Here’s the report’s explanation: “The difference is right-wing interests take a longer-term approach and amplify polarizing messaging and candidates within the Democratic family with the intention of ‘othering’ all Democrats. Without aggressive pushback and tactics, it works.” You can look at aspects of the right-wing machine—Fox News certainly, and parts of the Koch machine—and nod along. This analysis isn’t wrong, exactly, but it’s outdated—the kind of thing every Democrat was wailing about during the George W. Bush presidency and early Obama years. It doesn’t capture the most dominant force in right-wing politics over the last decade: Donald Trump.
