The DNC Autopsy & Freedom Isn’t Free – Top 3 Takeaways – May 22nd, 2026
Takeaway #1: The autopsy
I’ve previously spoken from time to time in various ways about how I don’t like to kill anything. Not even bugs. Ashley will squash them, I move out of the way when she tells me too (and with that framing it probably isn’t too hard to figure out why I’m a plant-based eater). In the same train of thought, I have an admission to make. When the time came for autopsies in biology class, I had an arrangement with my female lab partner. She would do the autopsies, and I would document and present the findings. This worked for us quite well, btw. This is to say that in addition to not wanting to kill things, I’ve also never had an interest in examining dead things. I find both to be gross. Speaking of dead gross autopsies...I present to you the official Democrat 2024 autopsy... If you want to spend several hours of your life that you’ll never get back and be worse off for, go read that thing. As an occupational hazard, I took one for the team here and spent time with it yesterday, and I went about dissecting it this way. First, by jotting down potentially substantive/actionable points and secondly, by reviewing those notes to see if I learned anything. I came away with seven points and one thing I did learn – that's highly instructive for the Republican Party too. Here are the points I pulled away from the autopsy: 1) While Democrats won the 2020 election cycle, the demographic shift of middle-income, rural, Latino and male voters has been consistent over the past decade. 2) Democrats relied too much on anti-Trump messaging rather than agenda-based messaging 3) Republicans outperformed Democrats in media strategy 4) Democrats believe they need to rely less on traditional TV advertising and need to focus on digital creators, podcasts and ways to engage voters outside of election cycles 5) Demographics aren’t destiny (that’s a quote). The report suggests Democrats have incorrectly assumed that demographic trends were favorable and haven’t focused enough on candidate quality. 6) Democrats believe they need to rebuild party infrastructure in places they’d conceded (certain states and rural communities) 7) Inconsistent voters are swing voters
Takeaway #2: The realities
As I’m inclined to say, if the premise of anything is false anything built on the false premise will fail too. This is to say that I do think there were some constructive and instructive points brought up in the autopsy, the single most important thing, and thus the key to changing the party’s long-term trajectory remains unchanged. I’ll mention that in a moment but first here’s my autopsy of the Democrats autopsy: 1) While Democrats won the 2020 election cycle, the demographic shift of middle-income, rural, Latino and male voters has been consistent in every election cycle since 2018’s midterm. This is accurate. Had it not been for COVID-era voting and ballot policies in swing states Democrats would not have won in 2020 – that simply papered over the longer-term trend. 2) Democrats relied too much on anti-Trump messaging rather than agenda-based messaging. This is clearly accurate too although TDS is worse today with the Democrat base than it was yesterday, so they’ve learned nothing. 3) Republicans outperformed Democrats in media strategy 4) Democrats believe they need to rely less on traditional TV advertising and need to focus on digital creators, podcasts and ways to engage voters outside of election cycles. The first half of this is correct; the second half is hilarious. Two points here. First, on media strategy. Fun fact. Starting in 2024 (and growing since) did you know that in Palm Beach County fewer than 50% of households watched a traditional broadcast TV network in the typical day? Everything that’s online is “TV” these days, which greatly complicates and dilutes TV media buys. Conversely, and this is one of iHeart’s major talking points, 92% of people over the age of 6 will listen to one of our audio products during a typical day (whether it’s broadcast radio, a streaming broadcast or podcast). Any campaign that needs especially broad reach will fail with a TV-first and centered strategy – it's not possible to be able to achieve it given media consumption habits these days. The other half is hilarious though. It’s like the Left never learned from the failure of Air America and the other two related and failed off shoots. Twenty plus years ago when the Left thought the winning answer was to combat conservative talk radio – they had their bought-and-paid-for network. The reason it always failed was because there’s not an audience for it. People have historically flocked to conservative talk radio because they want to become informed and entertained. They still don’t get that the problem isn’t that they don’t have enough TDS riddled, vagina hat wearing homosexual alphabeters, creating content. It’s that those people are generally negative, miserable people who are only entertaining to talk about, not to listen to. 5) Demographics aren’t destiny. The report suggests Democrats have incorrectly assumed that demographic trends were favorable and haven’t focused enough on candidate quality. That’s correct and there’s a highly accurate and instructive takeaway one could infer from that point that Democrats are intent on ignoring... Identity politics is the wrong thing to do and a losing long-term strategy. 6) Democrats believe they need to rebuild party infrastructure in places they’d conceded. That’s smart, and there’s also evidence, a la in Florida, that they’re doing it. For the better part of two decades, I prodded Republicans in Florida to compete for every vote everywhere in this state, but especially in South Florida. My one-time saying was that in order for Republicans to win in Florida, they needed to lose well in South Florida. Well, that was true until Republicans started to do what I always said was possible if they fought for all votes in South Florida. They stopped losing well in SFL and started winning here too. 7) Inconsistent voters are swing voters. This is the point I learned from the autopsy that also explains a couple of things. Why is it that over the past decade Republicans have performed best when Trump’s name is on the ballot? Mostly because inconsistent, or unreliable voters, have come out to vote for him and often Republicans down ballot when they have voted. In today’s highly polarized society it’s not just hard to find persuadable voters, it’s hard to get them motivated to vote. Trump has been successful at capturing them. Seemingly no other party or politician has been. So, there you go my autopsy of the Democrat’s autopsy. But back to the false premise I referenced. Here’s the bigger issue for Democrats. It’s become a godless party. One that super serves abominations like abortions and transgenderism and pushes people further from the teachings of God. There’s nothing in their autopsy to address this. The further removed from God’s teachings the DNC continues to travel, the worse the outcomes over time will continue to be. That’s true for Democrats but also sadly for this country and by proxy the world overall. That’s because there will be cycles that they will win – like this year’s - even if the longer-term trend towards the dustbin of history remains on track. The autopsy is complicated but in reality, it doesn’t need to be.
Takeaway #3: Freedom isn't free
Of all federal holidays none is more solemn or as significant as Memorial Day. Increasingly, the purpose and significance of the day of remembrance is blurred in our society. It’s commonly viewed as “the un-official start of summer” or some such party day. And to be sure those who’ve laid down their lives in service of this country have done so, so that we can enjoy our freedom. However, as Americans, we all have a responsibility on Memorial Day to pay homage to those who granted us freedom with their lives. It started with the 4,435 Americans who died in the American Revolution and has continued with over 7,000 Americans who've sacrificed their lives fighting terrorism around the world since 9/11. As our country is in the process of celebrating our 250th anniversary this year, it’s important to understand how this came to be and why we’re able to do so. Over 1.5 million Americans have sacrificed their lives for freedom. Our freedom. The least we can do is take a little time one day a year to honor their sacrifice. After World War II, and at the time of the official declaration of Memorial Day as a federal day of remembrance in 1967, approximately 12% of the US population had served in the military. For those who survived the Great War and The Forgotten War, they didn't need a reminder of the sacrifices made by those who didn't return home. Today, under 1% of Americans serve. It's become easy for most to take for granted the freedom they enjoy. Over 80% of the world's population isn't free and the median per capita income outside of the United States is approximately $5,000 per year. Many in our society lack perspective because they never had it, weren't taught it or simply place politics disproportionately above what's most important. It's important that we all do our part to ensure we have the proper perspective and share it with those in our lives. This includes conflating Veterans Day with Memorial Day. While we honor and appreciate our veterans, they’re distinctly different days for a reason. Freedom isn't free. It never has been. It's paved with the blood of more than 1.5 million Americans who laid down their lives in service to our country. It’s our duty as Americans to honor them and remember them this Memorial Day.