Monday, October 23, 2017

FOCUS, Goddamnit

I have seen any number of hand-wringing articles from multiple sources at this point attempting to address Why Trump Won, the disaffection of midwestern and southern conservative voters, how to win back the hearts and minds of Obama-Trump voters, etc., etc., etc.

Folks, any article that fails to mention the following is simply missing what happened:

  • Clinton won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump. A clear majority of Americans preferred her. She made some serious errors (see "deplorables," Michigan) that contributed to her loss, perhaps fatally, but stop telling me what a terrible candidate she was.
  • Trump won the electoral college owing to about 80,000 votes in three states: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
  • Voter suppression efforts in Wisconsin kept tens of thousands of people from voting and Trump won the state by 23,000 votes. The state had far fewer votes cast than in previous presidential elections, undoubtedly because of voter ID laws.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Against Trump, minor mistakes, electoral college oddities, and even some voter suppression (not a new thing) shouldn't have been enough to turn the tables. She should have won in a 1964-style landslide.

Chuck Karish said...

I expected to see and hear more than I did about voter suppression during the campaign. We needed and still do need to help people register and vote in spite of suppression.