In the military everything is viewed as an operation, even a change of command ceremony or a parade. It is not about trying to cover every detail but having a plan of execution that gets everyone on a common direction in understanding intent, tasks, purpose, and end state.
Operations are rehearsed for the sake of synchronization and coordination, but the most important part of any operation is the AAR—the After Action Review.
{mosads}Even in the heat of battle you conduct an AAR, but when it is short due to time or other mission constraints it is termed a “hotwash” AAR. It is always done because it is about improving, getting the lessons learned of what went right, but mainly about what went wrong. In the military we call that “sustains and improves.”
After the 2012 presidential election loss, the GOP, under then-Chairman Reince Preibus’s leadership embarked upon an AAR which ended up producing the Growth and Opportunity Project. It was a hard assessment of the GOP after losing two presidential elections and where the party needed to go for the future. It was referred to by some as an “autopsy” report as many deemed the GOP a dying political party whose demise was forthcoming. We can debate as to whether that report led to the November 2016 victory, but Priebus nonetheless recognized an AAR had to be done.
Yet in the aftermath of the November 2016 election, the Democratic party has not conducted a publicly announced self-assessment. Instead, it would appear that many Democrats’ response is that we need more protests, denigrating language, and demeaning attitudes toward those who did not “vote our way.”
It would behoove Democrats to determine what happened to the venerable “blue wall,” that in which they so ardently placed their confidence. A simple look at the post-election “red” versus “blue” count at the county level should be cause for concern. This was what Democrat Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) was trying to articulate in his quest to be the House Democrat Leader. Any honest AAR process would have realized that Congressman Ryan was correct, and that the far left progressive message of the today’s Democratic party is not reaching the American worker.
The reelection of Nancy Pelosi in the House as Minority Leader is reflective of a party that does not want to conduct a formal AAR that assesses strengths and weaknesses, sustains and improves. They continue to talk among themselves—along with a complicit liberal progressive media arm—and tell themselves nothing is wrong.
Look no further than the cast auditioning to be the next Chairman of the Democrat National Committee to find a harder turn toward the left.
Once upon a time the Democrats castigated the GOP as the “party of no,” when in reality Republicans offer alternative policy solutions. Where are the new Democratic policies? Democrats ought to be aware of what could happen if economic growth, better education opportunity, and restoration of law and order return to the American inner cities.
Democrats will eventually have to conduct an honest AAR. If they fail to do so, then the electoral results of 2010, 2014, and the losses of gubernatorial seats and State legislatures will be their albatross.
To Democrats who believe they have a winning formula: beware the 2018 midterm elections.
Allen West, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and former Member of the 112th U.S. Congress, is the Executive Director of the National Center for Policy Analysis. Follow him on Twitter @AllenWest.
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