Mainstream media pundits have had a field day in the past week, but don’t be fooled. Donald Trump did not obtain a giant leap in popular vote support. Those 75,575,000 votes are only 2.2% more than the 72,414,000 in 2020. It’s barely more than 50% of the total. Trump did better with voters in 2020, when he received 4.6% more votes than he had in 2016.
Voters treated this election like the Obama second term contest in 2012: fewer voters trekked to the polls (only 148,042,000, via in person or the dining table). The Biden-Trump election in 2020 reversed that trend and set a record for voters (156,620,000).
So yes, Trump won a second term, like George W. Bush, but with a only slight majority of the popular vote. Both men met this milestone on their second election, not the first. With Bush, more voters went blue in 2004 than 2000. This time the Democratic-leaning voters chose to stay home.
That’s the question of the day: why did so many registered voters abstain from what former Trump officials considered a referendum on an existential threat to democracy?
None of this would be happening if 121,000 people had filled in the little bubble next to Harris' name instead of Trumps.
Or if 241,000 Democrats who didn't show up had bothered. pic.twitter.com/ITLhdysOcd
— Charles Gaba ?? (@charles_gaba) November 14, 2024
Notice the difference in third party votes: in the 20th century, it weakened both the Democratic and Republican parties. In the 21st, the Democratic Party. Ironically, the last name of each affected Democratic candidate was ‘Clinton.’
A word about Reagan
Reagan is given credit for a landslide in 1980 because electoral college maps show results in large geographic units rather than Congressional districts or voting percentages.
Did you realize Reagan received only 50.7% of the popular vote in 1980, only slightly more than Trump’s 50.2% (13 Nov 2024).
I have spent 44 years under the impression that America gave Reagan a sweeping mandate when he defeated Carter.
We did not.
The damage Reagan wrought … culminating in Trump’s presidencies … began with the will of a minuscule majority — less than 1% of the voting populace. Just like Trump.
For both “landslide” misrepresentations, I blame traditional news media.
Reagan’s election in 1980 began with an illegal negotiation with a foreign power (release of Iranian hostages), but that’s for another day. However, Reagan’s shenanigans was not unlike Trump’s invoking “illegals” in his campaign. Trump’s was made possible only because he demanded Republicans reject their own bipartisan border bill. We’ll leave Putin for another day, as well.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com