Wednesday, November 9, 2016

The Democrats' Problem

2016
Trump - 59,589,806
Hillary - 59,796,265

2012
Obama - 65,916,000
Romney - 60,934,000

So Trump got more than a million fewer votes than Romney, in a bigger country. But Hillary got more than 5 million fewer votes than Obama. The Obama coalition is unbeatable if they bother to show up, but so far only Obama can get them to show up.

2 comments:

G. Verloren said...

Maybe if voting was mandatory, things would work out differently...

Or maybe just if voting didn't occur on a Tuesday, a policy that in the 19th century was practical, but that today is decidedly problematic given our modern work and life schedules...

Or maybe we should use purpose-built facilities for voting stations instead of setting them up ad hoc in garages and middle school auditoriums and small parish churches and other places which are in no way suited or equipped to handle the volume of voters regularly seen, which frequently turns what should be a 5 minute process into a several hour ordeal of standing in line (often completely exposed to the elements) on an already busy workday...

Or maybe we should declare the day we vote to be a national holiday, like Puerto Rico does, giving people plenty of time to cast their ballots...

Or maybe we should have the police, or firefighters, or even the military or national guard get involved to both help manage the logistics of holding the vote itself, and protect voters against potential intimidation and obstruction tactics...

Nahhh, none of these ideas would ever work - they're too sane and sensible for people to get behind.

Janet Harrington said...

Thanks for posting these numbers. I'm hoping that a big chunk of the five million people who voted for Obama but didn't show up for Hillary are now regretting their failure to participate. Sure – he's a Rock Star, and she's just a hard-working Policy Wonk, but come on folks – look what happens when you don't vote!