Thinking of red states vs blue states is busted. Plenty of good visualizations of this over the years, but this election in particular feels really important to point out “We” did not chose this.
When I say we I mean registered US voters, but even less so citizens, and even less so again residents.
Even of the voters who did vote for the GOP candidate, who can say how many really wanted him or his policies vs they just didn’t want more of the status quo Dems.
The popular vote tallies in this graphic are out of date too, He definitely didn’t win in a landslide the way it can appear with red and blue maps. His win in the popular vote was also pretty small now that more votes have been counted. https://www.thenation.com/…/donald-trump-vote-margin…/
So, what if Biden used broad immunity SCOTUS granted to declare a crisis of democracy - That between massive disinformation campaigns by enemies both foreign and domestic, voter suppression, as well as many other factors, the will of the people can’t be discerned from our recent presidential election. That it would be a dereliction of duty both to the people and to his oath to defend the constitution to hand over power to someone whose clear and declared intent is abuse the power of the office to fundamentally reshape or demolish our republic based on this highly suspect and incomplete result (remember, most people didn’t even vote)
Here is my off the cuff proposal for what to do after that
A new election, everyone must vote. Trump and Harris on the ballot, but each major party must offer 2 candidates, and we’re using Ranked Choice Voting. 1st place gets presidency, 2nd place gets VP.
Biden almost certainly won’t do anything like this. He is clearly a coward with a stupid sense of optimism - a “things will be just fine, no need for any drastic measures” ever, mentality, and despite some rhetoric has shown no signs that he thinks there is anything to actually be concerned about from the party which has veered hard towards fascism. But, hey, a guy can dream.
Because of the way Electoral College works especially, but many other factors contribute to apathetic non-voting behavior. Potential voters feel their vote literally doesn’t matter and statistically and practically speaking they are not wrong. Dismissing all of that by saying “non-voters also chose this” outcome is naive and shortsighted and is in my mind taking the side of injustice.
Bud, you can’t post a map showing that, if everyone voted, would-be nonvoters would have the power to change over half of the states’ electoral college results, then pair it with the statement “Potential voters feel their vote literally doesn’t matter and statistically and practically speaking they are not wrong.” You’re literally providing the statistical proof that they are wrong.
Look at your own map you posted. Then think about how much influence the non voters could have had. Given the fact that it’s apparently more than half the population it would have made a huge difference. Possibly with a very different election outcome. just because it feels like it doesn’t matter doesn’t make it true. Every vote changes the result after all. Even in a system that has flaws.
While it’s not great to pick a side that you don’t quite believe in it’s still better than not voting because that only helps the side that you really don’t want to see win. Which is exactly what happened. That is in my humble opinion the real shortsighted and naive thing Going on here.
Not voting also means they didn’t contribute to down ticket races and ballot initiatives which are often more competitive, and very consequential.
Vote or accept the outcomes. People who had the right to vote and refused to exercise that right are just as responsible for the outcome as everyone else.