2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDemocrats won the most votes in the election. They should act like it.
More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump. More Americans voted for Democratic Senate candidates than for Republican Senate candidates.
So why arent Democrats acting like it? Why arent they trying to force Republicans, the media, and the emergent Trump White House to act like it?
This is not an argument that the election was rigged, or that Trumps win is somehow illegitimate. The president is chosen by the Electoral College. The Senate is built to favor small states. Gerrymandering is legal. America does not decide national elections by simply tallying up votes.
But the will of the voters still matters, or at least it should. Thus far, Democrats have slipped comfortably into the position of minority party. They arent demanding that Trump put forward compromise candidates for key posts. They arent laying out a proactive agenda that would serve as their basis for negotiations with Trump and the Republicans. And they arent, in their public messaging, emphasizing that most voters opposed Trumps agenda, and that both Democrats and Republicans need to take that seriously.
Democrats have confused the reality of being out of power with the idea of being in the minority. This lets the Trump administration and the Republican Party confuse the reality of being in power with the idea of having a mandate for their agenda.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/22/13708648/democrats-won-popular-vote
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)We should regularly refer to him as the "Minority President". You should see how the trumpets react when they get all high and mighty and I point out that "None the less, a couple million fewer people voted for him than for her".
mfcorey1
(11,001 posts)Hillary Clinton. It is the truth and there is nothing they can do about it.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The real truth here is not a semantic one about who is whose president. The reality is that there is no mandate. He still has to "make his case" to the American people for the things he wants to do.
Ace Rothstein
(3,163 posts)usrbs
(632 posts)The non-mandate label will be useful as we try to save Medicare and Roe vs Wade.
The Nothing we can do attitude is self-fulfilling and helplessness is not a vote getter.
WWRD - think what a Republican would do, and do the same, barring racism and illegal acts.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)let alone make demands.