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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   16390 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 27, 2026

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This is the perspective that I see commonly but disagree with vehemently. As a Kamala voter who wants the Democratic Party to have success in the future, the most dignified thing to do here would be not only to release the autopsy but to point highlights at the dirtiest of the laundry that gets aired out in the process.

The issue I see with the autopsy is its unlikely to be helpful. There are a few ways it could go. It could be like the RNC Mitt Romney autopsy, which was nonsense corporate donor catering. Embrace immigration, lower taxes, reform entitlements, etc. The Trump campaign rejected basically every recommendation and won.

So what ways did the DNC actually take the autopsy? I only think there are a few ways they'd actually take it:

  1. Racist-Sexist America rejected Kamala because racism and sexism.
  2. Kamala was too moderate. Joe was too moderate. We need Mahndami.

I don't think either direction would actually be a good evaluation of what happened, and would not help Democrats improve their chances.

If the Democrats were to release a report like that, the fact that the DNC would put their names on such a pathetic ego-protecting report is something every Democratic voter would find immensely valuable, for deciding how much reform the party leadership needs. Because a DNC that would produce such a report is one that is neither interested in getting things right nor in winning, and those are important characteristics for any supporter of any party to consider.

I am intrigued why you think Democrat voters think it would be valuable as a tool revealing the soul of the and dnc to voters as opposed to just confirming their priors.

Well, I understand that a lot of Democrats are blind tribalists, but a lot of them still do value the idea that our side should win because it's actually better than the other side, not merely because it's our side. If we can't openly analyze the "soul of the dnc," then we can't be confident that our side actually is better.

For a lot of people, and not necessarily fully blind tribalists, their side is better because of prior assumptions that are not in question. For instance, if you consider all immigration to be inherently enriching, or the kind of environmental positions that the Democrats have been pushing to be a non-negociable minimum, then there is no need to analyze the "soul of the DNC"; you are not going to alter these positions, you might at best appear to compromise on them publically but still intend on cynically carrying them on when in power. Basically, you just need to manage the situation with regards to the public, including avoiding giving the other side ammo.

For a lot of people, and not necessarily fully blind tribalists, their side is better because of prior assumptions that are not in question.

I would say that this sentence is essentially self-contradictory. The "fully" can sorta save it, but even then, to whatever extent these people are only partially blind tribalists, it just doesn't touch on the actual, meaningful thing about not being a blind tribalist, which means being open to questioning such prior assumptions.

Is not that they're blind, it's just that some things are not realistically in question; a blind tribalist would be 100% on board to dump these assumptions if their tribe also dumped them.

A correct autopsy (the party needs to publicly and noisily repudiate Defund the Police and TWAW and boast about the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the work left) would be even more controversial within the Democratic Party than either of those possibilities.

This is a difference between the UK and US centre-left - centrist Labourites bellyfeel that the left of the Labour party is mostly useful because you can punch them as a costly signal of alignment with the median voter, centrist Democrats see the left as the conscience of the party.

That is why I don't think a correct autopsy would ever be drafted or released

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