When one factors in the third party candidate votes, a stunning 54% of the American electorate rejected Donald J. Trump. Trump is a minority president. A majority of American voters did not want him.
George Lakoff
Hillary Clinton won the majority of votes in this year’s presidential election.
The loser, for the majority of voters, will now be a minority president-elect. Don’t let anyone forget it. Keep referring to Trump as the minority president, Mr. Minority and the overall Loser.
Constant repetition, with discussion in the media and over social media, questions the legitimacy of the minority president to ignore the values of the majority.
The majority, at the very least, needs to keep its values in the public eye and view the minority president’s action through majority American values.
16 comments:
But the popular vote is not how our elections work. If the tables were turned the GOP would be hollering foul. If you look at the last umpteen elections the winner was a minority candidate because they did not get over 50% of voters.
The democrats had a chance to change it but they decided obamacare was more important.
Clinton won with only 48% of the vote, so 52% voted against him.
If Mrs. Clinton had won she would have been elected with the highest negatives, just as Trump was.
In the elections of 2008 and 2012, President Obama received a majority with 51+% of the vote, not a plurality, of votes from the electorate -- the first time since the election of Dwight Eisenhower. Yet the Goopers questioned his legitimacy to be president.
Trump is a minority president of a sizable proportion -- 54% of the American electorate did NOT vote for him.
Let the narcissist live with that knowledge.
Speculating on how the Dems would react had this been the case with Hillary is just that -- speculation. With Trump and his tenuous win, we have reality. He's a minority president.
BTW, we elect every other political office in this country by popular vote: House of Representative, Senate, governorships, and local offices. We use the EC because of the south. Period. I assume you know the history.
I continue to struggle with this. Technically the president is a manager, or an overseer. His job is to insure the will of the people through congress is met. So, it really isn't an issue. Unless of course the president sees his role as an imperial president.
I am not a big fan of a person losing the popular vote and becoming our President, because I think it hurts his, or her legitimacy.
However, as you pointed out, Obama won with over 50%, an overwhelming EC total, in 2008, the Dems took the House and the Senate and yet that was not viewed as a mandate.
Using their own metric, the GOP is just a bunch of liars who make it up as they go along.
Even now they want the Dems to not challenge everything, just as they did against Obama. And for me, i'd be okay with that, if they would just admit to the hypocrisy, double dealing and partisanship of their views and stances.
For them, if you are not from the GOP, you are not legitimate and cannot be president.
They may win, but in my opinion, their a bunch of buffoons.
Let me also say the Dems knew the rules going in and blew this election.
Plain and simple. It was not taken from them, the GOP did not cheat.
HRC and her campaign ran a horrible campaign and the DNC should be ashamed of themselves. Pelosi has presided over the largest drop in Dem influence in a generation. How is she even seen as a leader for the next generation?
It is time for change.
RN, Trump does not reflect my values -- politically or personal. But I would be willing to give him the old benefit of the doubt if he wasn't spending his time tweeting stupid statements. The last one -- implying that he would punish Americans -- even EXILE them -- for exercising their guaranteed 1st amendment rights.
The man is a disgrace to our country. He doesn't know its laws, yet thinks he'll be its leader? He's a dangerous fool.
Dave, agreed. Pelosi needs to give way to younger leadership.
We elect federal reps, federal senators,and all state elected officials by popular vote. Therefore my question is, aren't the people being represented adequately and by popular vote? To me it seems the answer is yes.
Presidents who are elected by folks in south and heartland who fail to do the research and due diligence we cannot control.
Education and economic opportunity is key to reversing the trend. Red state officias and the republican party in general are really not interested in either.
Thus we have what we have. Democrats share some of the responsibility IMO.
Through Pelosi's leadership the Democrats have lost 68 seats in the House. She also strongly approved of Debbie Wasserman Schultz being DNC head.
Ryan is absolutely correct when he says under Pelosi and Harry Reid the party has become "coastal" and they have lost the support of people between the mountains, a group that was strongly Democratic for decades.
@skud -- If you look at the last umpteen elections the winner was a minority candidate because they did not get over 50% of voters.
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Yes but there have only been a few instances of the president elect losing the popular vote and winning the electoral kluge.
Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, George Bush, Donald Trump. Only Hayes lost a larger percentage of the popular vote than Donnie Small Hands (excepting the unique situation of John Quincy Adams).
So a minority of the population gets to impose a reactionary administration and all my Repub brethren can do is blather some bromides about tyranny of the majority, Check out his Health and Human Services secretary. Guy has come out for taxing workplace health premium benefits.
You don't put a brake on these schmucks and you'll get a lot you haven't bargained for.
Time to wise up, spud.
Interesting point.
RN: Technically the president is a manager, or an overseer. His job is to insure the will of the people through congress is met. So, it really isn't an issue.
There's also the little matter of the 7,200 nuclear warheads which will soon be under the control of a man who would rather fight Alec Baldwin on Twitter than attend his own intelligence briefings, plus the risk of his packing the Supreme Court with wingnuts who would destroy our Constitutional protections.
It matters who wins.
Anon: the party has become "coastal" and they have lost the support of people between the mountains
a) There are a lot of blacks and Latinos "between the mountains".
b) The kind of people that voted for Trump are a big part of why the area "between the mountains" is emptying out and the majority of the US population is now urban. People don't lose their political rights when they move to a city.
He is the only candidate who has ever made money by running for President. By that I mean bleeding the taxpayers to pay his bills even though he contributes zero in tax revenue to the public commons he profits from. He's virtually picking America's pocket.
Once again Infidel, I do not disagree with what you say. However elections have consequences. Unfortunately we are stuck with what exists, not what we prefer.
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