The point is, it was a very close election, yet again. Both sides to need to understand that it was far from a landslide victory. I know the popular vote is meaningless but the margin of victory was less than Clinton's margin of victory eight years ago, and much less than Biden's margin four years ago. This is not to delegitimize the fact that Trump won fair and square, it is to emphasize that we are a closely divided electorate as usual. Biden made the same mistake last election when he thought he had a mandate to implement sweeping FDR-like initiatives when in fact the real mandate he had was to return the country to normalcy. Unfortunately the GOP wouldn't permit that to happen.
This time, Trump is so far off base with what he wants to do with his "mandate" that the GOP should get clobbered in the midterms and Vance or any other GOP presidential candidate will be saddled with the stench of their association with Trump in 2028. That's assuming we still have free and fair elections.
Electoral victory is what constitutes a mandate not the relative size of the victory. It is pretty clear that Trump and the Congressional Banana Republicans do, in fact, have a mandate.
Not in the eyes of independent voters. The independents who voted for Trump largely broke for him over cultural issues (i.e anti-wokeism) and the economy. These types of voters aren't in the tank for him, and Trump's administration is exhibiting the same type of sweeping excesses that drove those voters to throw out the incumbent party. And if the Dems to manage to take advantage of this type of backlash in 2028, they need to realize base plays are for show, centrism is for pros.
I disagree. He vacuumed up all the swing states. He won some by 2M votes. He gained vote share in nearly every category but white educated women. He made inroads with traditionally blue voters. He beat her by nearly 90 electoral college votes. If Harris had won this way, we’d be saying she had a mandate. I hate Trump but I think it’s silly to deny that it wasn’t even close. To deny it is to miss the direction Americans are sliding and miss a chance to lure them back.
Heck, he'd still claim a mandate had he lost by an electoral landslide. He's just again lie that the election was stolen. As would most of his base, even knowing well that it is a lie.
There is no god-damned mandate-- a 1.5% margin is in no way a mandate! Good Grief!
Sheila, you are, of course right ... except in the MAGA, Kelleyanne world of alternate facts.
The point is, it was a very close election, yet again. Both sides to need to understand that it was far from a landslide victory. I know the popular vote is meaningless but the margin of victory was less than Clinton's margin of victory eight years ago, and much less than Biden's margin four years ago. This is not to delegitimize the fact that Trump won fair and square, it is to emphasize that we are a closely divided electorate as usual. Biden made the same mistake last election when he thought he had a mandate to implement sweeping FDR-like initiatives when in fact the real mandate he had was to return the country to normalcy. Unfortunately the GOP wouldn't permit that to happen.
This time, Trump is so far off base with what he wants to do with his "mandate" that the GOP should get clobbered in the midterms and Vance or any other GOP presidential candidate will be saddled with the stench of their association with Trump in 2028. That's assuming we still have free and fair elections.
Electoral victory is what constitutes a mandate not the relative size of the victory. It is pretty clear that Trump and the Congressional Banana Republicans do, in fact, have a mandate.
Not in the eyes of independent voters. The independents who voted for Trump largely broke for him over cultural issues (i.e anti-wokeism) and the economy. These types of voters aren't in the tank for him, and Trump's administration is exhibiting the same type of sweeping excesses that drove those voters to throw out the incumbent party. And if the Dems to manage to take advantage of this type of backlash in 2028, they need to realize base plays are for show, centrism is for pros.
I disagree. He vacuumed up all the swing states. He won some by 2M votes. He gained vote share in nearly every category but white educated women. He made inroads with traditionally blue voters. He beat her by nearly 90 electoral college votes. If Harris had won this way, we’d be saying she had a mandate. I hate Trump but I think it’s silly to deny that it wasn’t even close. To deny it is to miss the direction Americans are sliding and miss a chance to lure them back.
Yeah but everybody who wins an election claims a mandate, that's pretty normal.
It's when they start saying "the greatest mandate in the history of the solar system" that we get to start rolling our eyes.
If he won by 1 vote, he would still claim a mandate.
Heck, he'd still claim a mandate had he lost by an electoral landslide. He's just again lie that the election was stolen. As would most of his base, even knowing well that it is a lie.
True.
He'd say GREATEST LANDSLIDE IN HISTORY
Exactly! Everybody, Dems, GOP, independents, old, young, etc. voted for him!
With tears in their eyes!