A Tale of Two Squeakers
In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost the Electoral College and the Presidency to Donald Trump, nevertheless holding a substantial lead in the popular vote. Her defeat came from losing very close states going to Trump by less than 1% of the vote.
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Wisconsin -- 10 Electoral Votes Trump won by 0.8% of the vote, a margin of 23,000
Pennsylvania -- 20 Electoral Votes Trump won by 0.7% of the vote, a margin of 45,000
Michigan -- 16 Electoral Votes Trump won by 0.3% of the vote, a margin of 11,000
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About 80,000 votes separated the two candidates in those states and if a mere 40,000 people across those three states were to flip their votes, Hillary would have been elected.
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In 2020, current tallies show Donald Trump losing both the Electoral College and the popular vote to Joe Biden. His Electoral College defeat came from losing very close states going to Biden by less than 1% of the vote.
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Wisconsin -- 10 Electoral Votes Biden won by 0.7% of the vote, a margin of 20,000
Pennsylvania -- 20 Electoral Votes Biden won by 0.7% of the vote, a margin of 50,000
Arizona -- 11 Electoral Votes Biden won by 0.3% of the vote, a margin of 13,000
Georgia -- 16 Electoral Votes Biden won by 0.3% of the vote, a margin of 14,000
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About 97,000 votes separated the candidates in those states and if a mere 50,000 people across four states would flip their votes, Trump would be re-elected.
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What a coincidence! Even with dramatically higher turnout, the final tallies produced an almost identical result -- both electorates numbering well above 100 million, but both races came down to microscopic victories in a few states.
In 2016, the close calls tilted toward Trump. This time to Biden.
As of election night 2016, the Democrats claimed that Trump did not win legitimately. They have never produced a shred of evidence to support the utterly absurd accusation that Vladimir Putin arranged Trump's victory. They claimed that the Russian villain did this deed, not by stuffing the ballot box or anything so 20th Century. No, he just put enough incorrect ideas into the heads of enough Americans to elect Trump.
They should have raised all hell about the voter suppression effort in several states that probably did tip the vote count to Trump. They should have raised hell about insecure voting procedures. Instead, they raised hell about the probability of Putin exploiting those vulnerabilities without even hinting on doing anything to stop vote hacking from happening.
They never stopped pushing on Russiagate, even given the lack of either evidence or a plausible explanation of how Putin's mind manipulation works. The idea that Americans are too stupid to be able to make up their own minds is presented as though it were a defense of democracy. No, the entire project of Russiagate is a frontal assault on popular democracy.
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This go around, the mass media has closed ranks in support of the Democrats and has gone so far as to throw Donnie Shrimpfingers off the air for not telling the truth.
A politician lying? The hell you say!
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When I heard about this little exercise in corporate fascism, I came out of retirement to leave this thought with the community here:
Trump did his job perfectly. He played the role of Wannabe Fascist Dictator perfectly. He is without a doubt the most obnoxious personality in the history of Celebrity, and his preposterous behavior has been a grotesque embarrassment to every citizen of this collapsing Republic. He earned everlasting contempt from about 52% of the country and huge majorities in all the big cities.
Now corporate fascism, while also taking advantage of the pandemic, is taking control of everything in the guise of repudiating that Fascist Bastard, Trump. Over 70 million Americans voted for that guy for reasons that are their own business as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Since the days of Nixon and Agnew, the GOP has stirred up their constituency with constant attacks on the bias of the liberal media. Those folks, almost half the country, do not think that The Media is the arbiter of truth. You can bet that Flyover America noticed this little dust up, and they are not going to appreciate it.
Somebody or something -- maybe it is just our fate -- is driving us toward civil war.
Good luck to all.
Comments
Biden will bring on a golden age
when white supremacists start shooting he'll round up all those BLM protestors and crack some heads. He will create a million jobs - building prisons to hold Bernie voters (the NSA is making a list) and sleeping in cardboard boxes will be made illegal, protecting the value of your home - after the bank takes it.
On to Biden since 1973
You mean a Gilded Age (2.0)
And if you want to know what the first Gilded Age was like, just open a history book.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Should've been even *more* of a squeaker
and may yet be so by the time every last vote is recounted and all the lawsuits are settled.
The Media IS NOT the arbiter of "Who Won?" They have NO official role in ANY election at ANY level, from dogcatcher to President.
We forget this at our peril.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
There is only one reason that it was this close!
Biden is and was a flawed candidate. The majority of the votes that he got were against Trump not for dementia Joe.
HRC did not win a majority
Of the popular vote. I know the MSM keeps saying this but she only got 48%
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
To date only Samuel Tilden won a *majority*
of the popular vote and still failed to win the election.
(It was a slim majority, not quite 51%. But it was a majority.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
You are correct
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And I edited the Diary to fix the lazy error. Thanks for pointing it out.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
What I'd like to know
is what was the difference in the vote on voting machines compared to the vote on paper, if any. Everything else is irrelevant. (in 2016 Hillary was +35 on unverifiable voting machines and +4 on paper ballots - all of which on pre super Tuesday southern primaries vs. Bernie)
It is very believable that Biden created millions of votes out of thin air, but then, Trump suppressed millions of votes. A fair American election is like a sasquach or the Loch Ness Monster. According to the Navy UFOs are more real.
On to Biden since 1973
Why raise hell?
One never points out the absurdities that one runs on.
Dems cheat at the base level. And nobody says shit about it.
They are just now learning to cheat at the national level.
It is the only working program the dims have left.
Cheat like your income depends on it.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
How many years have we been saying this?
I used to bitch about the long lines at voting places, but they I figured out that it was deliberate. Dems complain about GOP's gerrymandering, but democrats make their voters stand in the long lines and if anyone can’t wait that long to vote they don’t. Neither party makes it easy to vote. Both know what we should do to fix it, but they don’t.
Ha....
As Greenwald said, "Trump is the laziest dictator in history." ‘Twas nice of him to let us vote huh? If Trump had just worn a effing mask he’d have won. Saagar recently said that.
Great essay.
If Biden had brains and integrity
He would work with the Republicans in court to come up with a set of recount rules, defining what is a legitimate vote. Then he would insist that every swing state do a complete, hand recount. That would legitimize his victory. Instead he will use every subterfuge to avoid this and to try to force Trump to concede and to declare victory regardless. The result will be four more years of half of the country insisting that the president is illegitimate. As someone famous recently said- whatever you do, don't concede. Trump is taking her advice.
The Constitution clearly states that whoever gets a majority of electoral votes on January 6 becomes the President Elect. The person with the second most votes becomes Vice President. This could get quite interesting if Biden croaks before the electoral college votes are counted. Since no votes have been counted yet, no one is officially President Elect. Well, the AP declared Biden as the winner. That means nothing.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Twelfth Amendment tweaked the procedure
President and Vice-President to be voted for separately, and the person with the most votes as Vice-President shall become the Vice-President.
It was felt necessary to spell this out explicitly after Aaron Burr tried to pull a fast one in 1800 - he was nominally a Vice-Presidential candidate but tied in votes with Thomas Jefferson and went hinting around that he'd really like to be President. The House of Representatives nixed that idea - by one vote - and a few years later we got the Twelfth Amendment to prevent any other Vice-Presidential candidates from getting ideas.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Thanks
I remembered the text of the Constitution but not the 12th amendment.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
i'm in awe of your command
of history.
A Bit Sketchy
You listed 3 states from the 2016 election but then dropped one of them and added two new ones for 2020. Dropping Michigan's 145,000 Biden vote lead may have allowed you to make your predetermined point, but it is a bit sketchy.
Also, Arizona has 11 electoral votes, not 16.
Thanks about the EC
I will fix that.
Regarding the specific states, yes they were not the same close states in the two elections.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.