The actual outcome of this election with •the whole US population• as the denominator:
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Queer Like The Slur last edited by
@coolandnormal @jwi
Indeed, and there's a reason why certain people are so keen to maximize how many people are ineligible. -
@inthehands Very good point! Our election process is a mess.
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@MyOpinion
Yeah. Democracy itself is a deeply flawed idea — worse than everything except all the alternatives — but we sure could do a better job of it. -
@inthehands of course, only a quarter voted Against him, too
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@inthehands I'm reminded of an episode of All In The Family, where Mike was a Democrat, and his FIL Archie was a die-hard Republican. Except Mike discovered that Archie hadn't voted in ages (I don't remember exactly). So Mike's question was, "How can you criticize the government when you didn't even vote?"
It's stunning that 28% of voters just didn't vote. Why not?
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@BillSeitz
Yup, and then half either didn't care or •wanted• to vote but couldn't, and we have very little idea how the balance between those two shakes out, so…grand, sweeping judgements that are actually accurate about the US seem to be elusive. -
@inthehands 93 million too indifferent or sexist to vote and instead sat on their hands. What a disgrace.
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@talexb
With both the 26% and the 28%, the “why” is an important question to consider carefully. For starters, please note the asterisk in my OP. -
Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
Several replies fail to distinguish “checked out” from “shut out” when talking about non-voters.
Please, folks, please note the asterisk in the OP. It's an important asterisk.
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@inthehands I think it is "accurate enough" to say that eligible voters who didn't vote were "fine with letting others decide". Given the OP's numbers, this means out of eligible voters,
Around 68% were fine with Trump.
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@bityz This one is for you: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/113511777335121868
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@inthehands I don't want to harsh your mellow but I haven't seen any reliable study/evidence that the vote isn't representative of the missing ~25% eligible voters, the bias due to vote suppression targets likely Harris voters more, but even if you had 100% of eligible voters, while it might change the outcome (yay!), the ratio is probably not going to change much, certainly not 70/30, this brand of fascism is way more popular amongst some powerful demographics than we'd both like.
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@inthehands I saw the '*' -- for a country that styles itself as a democracy, it's shameful that voting is so challenging. Gerrymandering, purging voter rolls, weird campaign finance rules and all sorts of shenanigans. It's so odd.
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@talexb
Indeed, where “odd” mostly means “racist.” -
@inthehands or 50% doesn’t care about democracy
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@inthehands @coolandnormal @jwi there isn't enough consensus and political power to enact this now, but I think the nation would better if anyone who lives here more than half the year was considered a resident and vote in local elections and easily become a citizen with no more administrivia than getting a passport. If you chose to live under the rules of a location you have a stake and should have a say in how those rules are made. It shouldn't be substantially more difficult than moving state
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Hugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷replied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands Still depressing to think that nearly half the population didn't vote.
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@Tooden @inthehands Of that half, most were children. Turnout is low, but also second highest in over 100 years.
When people don't vote it's because they don't think it has an impact on their lives. And if you don't care who governs because you don't see the difference in your life, it probably doesn't. End the two party system, so people feel represented, and you'll see higher turnouts.
This was what the US wanted as much as anything else in the past. In context, high turnout, clear victory.
