Mandate Schmandate - What The Numbers Really Show

The purpose of this article is to show another perspective (NO and Hell No) on the idea that somehow Joe Biden has a "mandate" to take the Country in a new direction...that direction being hard to the "LEFT".

Th Associated Press, "With victory in hand, Biden has claimed a mandate."

The Texarkana Gazette reports, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Joe Biden's victory over President Donald Trump is a "mandate for action."

Ok, Biden claims it and others proclaim it, so what is a "political mandate" and does Biden have one?

Forbes Magazine writes, "Political scientists define a “mandate” as the authority voters give to an elected representative to carry out his or her platform. Presidents and politicians from either party will often pontificate about how clear or decisive that “mandate” is, but in reality there’s no clear definition for what a “clear” or “decisive” mandate constitutes."

"No clear definition" but that doesn't stop the proclamations! However, one often sited justification for claiming a mandate is - the margin of victory.

A common view "is that a president's popular mandate, as measured by the size of his margins of victory in the popular and electoral vote, predicts the likelihood of him launching enduring changes in policy and politics."

The thinking is, if the election is close it means the country is equally divided so maybe big changes won't go over well, BUT if the margin is large, well, that's equates to a "clear mandate", indicating big changes are not only acceptable but desired.

Not So Fast. Not all margins carry the same weight. We'll get to the numbers in a moment.

Forbes magazine continues, "This year, Democrats won the presidency, but lost seats in the House and gained just one net seat (so far) in the Senate. It will be hard for Biden to claim he has a decisive mandate, and difficult for Democrats to push through their agenda should Republicans maintain control of the Senate."

Pundits, being honest with themselves and the nation, will acknowledge that conservative candidates and conservative philosophy won the day November 3rd outside of the national pushback on the presidency. Millions of voters admit to voting against Trump for his character and style instead of voting positively for Biden and the political policies & ideas of the democrats. This does not, a mandate make.

Now consider that not all democrats are the same. There are democrats who self-identify as liberal, moderate and conservative members.. In an article reinforcing America as still a center right nation, the Gallup Poll people say, " in 2019, the ideological balance of the country remained center-right, with 37% of Americans, on average, identifying as conservative during the year, 35% as moderate and 24% as liberal."

Within that 24% of the Democrat party, liberals identify at 47%, moderates at 38% and conservatives (yup-conservative democrats) at 14%. The liberal wing of the liberal party makes up less than half the party and Pew research says the movement toward liberalism has slowed among Democrats. Conclusion, there is no grand ideological shift to the left by the voters. Party leadership may be chomping at the bit to gallop left, but the voters who said "No" to Trump but "Yes" to down ballot Republicans, don't support the implementation of any kind of a radical shift.

Now to the numbers and that margin of victory.

According to the Cook Political National Popular Vote Tracker, as of Tuesday 11/24/2020, the numbers show that Nationwide, Joe Biden received a record total of 80,046,072 votes. At the same time, President Donald Trump got 10 million more votes than he did in 2016 with a total of 73,881,950 votes...six million fewer than Biden!

WOW! On paper, at first glance, this looks like it might be a mandate doesn't it? But let's refer back to what a mandate is. If we can generally agree that a mandate is a "Justification For Action & Change" in part based on a significant margin of victory applied to a significant philosophical difference, then maybe this isn't the mandate it might first appear to be. I'll explain.

So the question then is - From where did Biden's 6 million+ more votes come? Were they spread out across the land from the North and South, East and West and did they come from voters across a variety of ideas and opinions...you know, like a REAL mandate would?

Easy answer - No and Hell No, they ALL came from The Left Coast and 82% of those from California alone!

In California Biden got 11,038, 612 votes to Trump's 5,951,390 for a difference of 5,087,222 votes.

In Oregon Biden got 1,340,109 votes to Trump's 958,090 for a difference of 382,018 votes.

An lastly, in Washington State Biden got 2,367,252 votes to Trump's 1,582,560 for a difference of 784,692 votes.

Let's add up the margin of left coast victory.

Three states, California, Oregon & Washington generated a margin of victory total of 6,253,932 votes. The National Margin of Victory for Biden is 6,164,122. This means the West coast provided Biden his ENTIRE National Margin of Victory, plus an additional 89,810 votes.

So what does that mean in practical terms? The collection of far left voters on the coast hardly represents the collective will of the entirety of The United States Of America and as such, the votes from CA/OR/WA should not set the path or tone for some new mandate on how we should operate the Country. Here's Why. We've already demonstrated the majority of voters aren't liberals, any movement to the left has slowed, the down ballot and nation wide Republican wins show there is no rejection of conservative principles or philosophy.

So what do we know about the prevailing political philosophies of the West coast which gave Biden his Margin of victory? This. The West Coast consists of 3 of the Top Ten Most Liberal States in the Country. Here's what the website World Population Review has to say about where the West Coast fits in with the Top Ten Most Liberal States.

4. Washington is the fourth-most liberal state in the United States. In the 2016 presidential election, 52.5% of voters voted Democratic.

7. California California is the seventh-most liberal state in the United States. In the 2016 presidential elections, 61.5% of voters voted Democratic, a 30% lead over the Republican vote.

8. Oregon is tied as the eighth-most liberal. In the 2016 presidential election, 50.1% of voters voted Democratic while 39.1% voted Republican.

So, the vote margin comes from some of the most extreme states in the Country operating with the least mainstream philosophies in the Country. Is that mandate material? No. All the while, the Nation shows as a center right Country, with the Republicans having a successful general election in winning seats in the house and holding seats in the Senate, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to make sure that didn't happen. (all eyes on two Georgia runoffs)

But all of this is lost on Paul Waldman, a columnist of the Washington Post. He writes, " Doesn’t the fact that Democrats lost some seats in the House show how closely divided the country is? Does he (Biden) really have a mandate? The answer is this: You bet he does. And he needs to act like it."

Ok, we have shown you why we disagree maybe we call allow him a difference of opinion...but not a deviation from reality!

Waldman says, "In recent years, whenever Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was questioned about some extraordinary move he and Republicans were taking, ...his usual reply was to smirk and say, “Elections have consequences.” We won, in other words, so we can exercise our power in any way we see fit. This is what we have come to expect not just from McConnell but also from all Republicans, regardless of the circumstances of their victory".

Really? Are you kidding? It was President Barrack Obama who said that, as any simple google search would reveal!

Scott Rasmussen wrote in Deseret News "Elections have consequences. That phrase was first uttered by President Barack Obama shortly after he took office in 2009. Rather than reach out to Republicans and build bipartisan support for a major stimulus package, the president simply ignored the GOP and declared “elections have consequences.” That partisanship carried through to the creation of Obamacare, a major upheaval of our health care system passed on a totally party-line basis. The president had the votes and, to many Democrats, that’s all that mattered."

Here's the problem. Walden either knows it was Obama or he should so he is being intentionally deceptive (lying) or he's lazy or stupid. But he still gets a column and an editor still clears his work.

Then he ridiculously writes, "But when it’s Democrats’ turn, we expect them to be tentative and apologetic about using their power, always worried about whether a sternly worded editorial will chastise them for not incorporating enough Republican ideas into their plans".

When you stop laughing or drinking after reading "tentative and apologetic" , ask yourself this. With the mainstream media 100% in the tank for Democrats, who would even think to write a critical editorial, and who among today's Democrats would be chastised by it if it came to be and finally, do you see the likes of Schumer or Pelosi apologizing for how they wield their power...ever?

This guy has been spending too much time in Oregon!

Finally, he writes this, assuming with a straight face. "Let’s also not forget that Biden won this emphatic victory despite the extraordinary voter suppression effort that Republicans have assembled in recent years and that accelerated in the past few months as they tried madly to keep as many Democrats from voting as possible"

Voter suppression?....Biden got 80,046,072 votes...Hillary got 65,853,514...that's a difference of 14,192,558 votes!!! That's voter suppression? 14+million MORE votes for Democrats? Suppression? How might you ever take anything this guy writes seriously ever again?

So that's what we can expect from the media for the next 4 years. Tell me again who is going to write any kind of truthful critical opinion piece that receives any measure of distribution.? Get real. The media lies and misrepresentations will continue, maybe aimed less at Donald Trump and more at you and me?

Time for the rest of us to get real too.

Happy Thanksgiving. With no family allowed there should be lots of leftovers. So have a second helping, boost your energy...we're gonna need it! Peace.