NPR reports on the latest vote tally in the Presidential race. It undermines Trump’s repeated claims that the voters gave him a “mandate” to impose his campaign pledges.
The margin for the popular vote in this year’s presidential election is the second-closest since 1968, and it’s still tightening. With 96% of the vote in, Trump has 49.97% and Vice President Harris has 48.36%, according to the Associated Press. These results show that Trump doesn’t exactly have the “unprecedented and powerful mandate” he claimed on election night. The margin shows how closely divided the country is politically and that any shift to the right is marginal. Here’s what these results mean, plus a graphic that breaks down the popular vote throughout the years.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I read another news piece that reported when Trump heard that, he went into one of his angry fits. It didn’t’ say if he threw ketchup on the wall or not.
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And waste all that good ketchup for his hamberders? A priceless antique? Sure! A bottle of Heinz? Never!
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I still have a hard time understanding why and how Kamala lost all seven swing states. I am so disappointed in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The other states I can understand, because of their deep south focus, but seriously, Pennsylvania? We are so lost as a country, even with the gap narrowing.
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As a resident of Michigan, I may be able to provide a demographic insight. Michigan has an aging population. An aging blue-collar population. It taps into the Trump base hard. Driving through rural counties, it’s just one huge Trump yard sign after another.
Macomb County, in metro Detroit is very blue-collar. It’s the epicenter of the Reagan Democrat. Dearborn is heavily Islamic and they shunned Harris hard.
Michigan had a decade of losing its college grads to the Sun Belt. So there are not as many young families as thirty years ago.
I was surprised at the dedication to Trump of several neighbors, all of whom have been wonderful to me for 20+ years. Some of them are devotees of right-wing media and think that even though thy are well-off, thy should be better off.
Thirty years of airing grievances has finally paid off.
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Your experience in Michigan parallels my red state Tennessee experience. Trump voters consume only conservative media. In Tennessee the phenomenon of migration to Tennessee for political purposes is another thing that makes us more red
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“Trump voters consume only conservative media.”
It’s darkly hilarious to me how true and obvious this statement is, as well as the fact that the lion’s share of blame for how misinformed most Trump voters are should go to Fox News and other right-wing media, yet meanwhile there is an army of Dem-identified people who spend 90% of their time complaining about the New York Times.
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Mehdi Hassan posted the following on BlueSky:
“I don’t think I can handle the next four years of New York Times headlines.
Kill me now.”
The headline:
Trump Wants to Shake Up Healthcare: Many Americans don’t mind
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Oh gee I hope Medhi will be ok!
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So Michigan finally had a Democratic controlled legislature and the Governorship . They repeal Right to work in the home of the UAW. Nationally Biden and Democrats pass a huge infrastructure bill. And the chips act creating construction and manufacturing jobs. With a Presidential executive order calling for Union PLAs on Jobs over 35 Million ,not large at all.
After Biden rescuing the pension plans of the Teamsters central states 300k members. And another 100k of mostly Construction Union workers . In reality the Pensions of the entire 10 Million workers who have those plans were saved . As with the Privatization of N.O. schools after Katrina . The “Shock (Doctrine) “of the Pension Guarantee Trust Fund going bankrupt on those 400K Pensions would have allowed the Republicans to place fees and restructure the entire 10 million , gutting the entire system.
Tell me again about those Blue Collar workers . They deserve the kick in the ass they are going to get . Sadly they still wont get that this is their own fault.
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No argument, Joel.
They’ve also been fed a steady diet of “immigrants are stealing your jobs” and “inflation is Biden’s fault.”
Th blue collar people I interact with are driven by the border and culture issues. Propaganda and repetition works. Everything you posted is true and Democrats poorly messaged that. But right-wing media is all-consuming and excellent at appealing to emotion. Often, they angrily react to culture war issues but thy expect their pensions to happen so thy don’t see it as a victory because they’re getting the pensions they expected.
I’m not excusing them. But this is what I have noticed. They’re enraged by immigration but ungrateful that their pensions were saved.
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The Arab community is completely ignoring tRumps Muslim ban. I guess when Bibi finishes bombing Gaza and the remaining Palestinians are displaced – all with tRumps blessing – they may understand the grave mistake they made.
But maybe they will go stay in Jarod Kushners luxury resorts on the sea front property he is planning to build.
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It’s an extremely conservative community. Frankly the only thing it was aligned with Dems on was being opposed to anti-Muslim sentiment.
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Flerp: Maybe they think the Times should quit treating Trump as anything but armed and dangerous. Maybe they are right. For all the years after Gingrich launched grievance politics in the modern day, the right wing has unabashedly given its red meat to its hungry base through radio talk and so on, until no media is responsible to call them out for their BS. Who is going to do it besides the Times?
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I should say that I strongly disagree with the premise that the New York Times prints favorable coverage of Trump or does not “call out” Trump. What’s really happening is people are understandably enraged by the fact that Trump continues to succeed politically, and they get really angry when the most respected newspaper does not report every story related to Trump the same way that their favorite blogger blogs about it.
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I think the Times should have continually identified Trump as the twice-impeached insurrectionist and convicted felon.
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You think every reference to Trump in every NYT story should have included the phrase “a twice-impeached insurrectionist and convicted felon”? I think this makes my point. That’s how one’s favorite blogger might write. That’s not how news reporting at a major media org is or should be done.
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If a totally loony and corrupt person were in the running for President, I would expect the NYT tomoointbout that the candidate only recently was in a loony bin. And that he had stolen from all of his clients. Yes. Trump was worse.
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FLERP!
If Trump was President in 2021 would their be a single right wing media outfit that talked about inflation ?
So here is the NY Times in the fall of 2021 before the invasion of Ukraine , gas at the time was between $3.20 and $3.40+- a gallon. The Times writes an article about a Station owner in NJ that can’t afford to fill his car’s gas tanks. He owns a 2003 Escalade and a 1971 Camero. Doesn’t everybody own cars that get 6 miles to the Gallon. NPR another supposedly liberal Media source a story about a Family who goes through 9 gallons of milk. Sounds to me like the story should have been about forced sterilization.
Fast forward to last week when putzes like Morning Joe are hawking the idea that it was “the Economy Stupid “. As the show is still talking about high gas prices . “People are tired of only filling the tank 1/2 way. ” Mike Barnicle. News flash I paid $2.74 a gallon . Besides the being low in economic recoveries. The hours worked to fill that tank are significantly less than a decade ago. As Niel Irwin explained on the business pages of the Times in 2021 as the headlines on the front page were about that 71 Camero .
So yes it was the economy stupid, the economy that had the longest stretch of below 4% unemployment since 1965 . While the Prime age worker participation rate was higher than at anytime since 2001.
The economy that had Real Hourly Median wages rise higher than they were in 2019 Q4 before Covid . When you add in supervisory workers not 50% but 57% of workers making more than before Covid .
So lets not believe what people say. How about we believe what they do . They may pull out the credit card to maintain spending levels, but in this terrible economy they pulled out the Credit card this weekend to spend 8% more than last year on discretionary Items. While inflation was 2.6%+- .
What people tell you was shaped by Rt wing media. But as Hassan points out the “Liberal Media” with “CONSERVATIVE content editors” at the NYT and WaPo spent more time playing the both sides game in an effort to be fair and balanced then correcting the record . And when the Papers of Record tell a story it gets repeated !!!!
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Right-wing media is misinformation in service of the cause, so no, it definitely would not have talked about inflation if Trump were president.
I don’t think the Times overhyped inflation. I think that for the most part, it reported about how inflation was rising when it was rising, how it was falling when it was falling, how monetary policy was attempting to get it lower, and the varying degrees to which monetary policy succeeded or failed. That’s about what I expect the NYT or the WaPo or the WSJ to do. And when there is an extreme spike in inflation after decades of low (sometimes near-zero), I expect it to be a big story to at lasts beyond a standard media cycle.
I think a lot of people want the Times to be like Fox. That it’s inappropriate for the Times to strive to adhere to standard (outmoded?) notions of journalistic objectivity when the right wing media long abandoned them. I.e., “Where’s my Roy Cohn?”
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My point was that media are not created equal. One media group is accused of being biased by a mob of talk shows and radio yaps. It responds by trying to find a mythical middle ground when there is no middle ground between trying to tell the truth and not giving a damn about it. This process has moved the body politic rightward for most of my life. We are now so far to the right that we have given a majority to The closest thing the country has ever produced to General Franco.
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FLERP!
So here is another NYT article .
November 20 2021..
“Millions of American drivers have acutely felt the recent surge in gas prices, which last month hit their highest level since 2014. The national average for a gallon of gas is $3.41, which is $1.29 more than it was a year ago, according to AAA. Even after a recent price dip in crude oil, gasoline remains 7 cents more per gallon than it was a month ago.”..
Of note between 2011 and 2014 for 4 whole years the national price of gas was almost never lower than $3.60 nor higher than $3.90 So how much had incomes risen in the decade $12.71 an hour in 2011 . in 2021 $17.02 or: $4.35 per hour more . A minor detail ..
“$1.29 Higher than a year ago”. That would be Nov 20, 2020 . When the country was mired in Covid lock downs . The unemployment rate was 6.7% and 11million people were unemployed. And 28 million people were working from home.
That reporting is almost laughable for what it says and leaves out .
“While consumers are seeing a steady rise in the prices of many goods and services, the cost of gas is especially visible. It is displayed along highways across the country, including in areas where a gallon has climbed as high as $7.59 — as regular gas did in Gorda, Calif., in October.”
Yes they did tell you the National Average was $3.41a gallon. which do you think sticks.
Sorry I do not subscribe to the Times because I am too lazy to pick up the National Enquirer. That was a hit job, not reporting. And it had the desired affect . The panic over inflation without pointing out rising wages, especially for low wage workers played right into the right wing narrative.
The reality consumer spending on discretionary items from Restaurants to airline travel, to electronic toys is up . And up year over year even before Black Friday.
A media narrative I am told can not move the economy .(I don’t know if I agree) But it can move peoples perceptions of the economy.
Perhaps that is why the Fed Well-Being survey and others showes 72% say their personal finances are Okay or good . Their communities doing just fine but the National Economy sucks . .
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Roy, thank you for this spot-on comment:
“One media group is accused of being biased by a mob of talk shows and radio yaps. It responds by trying to find a mythical middle ground when there is no middle ground between trying to tell the truth and not giving a damn about it.”
This is an excellent piece about the so-called liberal media’s obsession with being “objective”:
https://billmoyers.com/story/the-failed-promise-of-objective-political-reporting/
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^^^this was written in 2020 and the NYT has only become far worse in 2024. How anyone defends the NYT when they spent the entire election making Trump’s cognitive decline and unfitness for office a “both sides” issue but Biden being a cognitive vegetable who was so unfit he was a danger to the US was an absolute fact that had to be part of every news story written about Biden AND the main subject of at least one or two extra stories that focused only on Biden’s extreme cognitive decline into senility.
When it comes to repeatedly reminding the public about something negative about a Democrat, then the NYT’s whiny excuse they use to justify why they censor bad news about Trump (“we already reported this once and the public already knows it so it isn’t newsworthy) goes right out the window. If it makes the Dem look bad, the NYT finds it worthy of being included in every article about the Democrat. “The public already knows that negative stuff about Trump, so we don’t have to report it because it isn’t newsworthy”. “The public (thanks to our reporting!) already knows all this negative stuff about the Dem, so that means it is newsworthy and we must always include it in every article about the Dem.”
As the piece I linked to states:
“There’s no consistency. “Objectivity” seems to be based on an oversensitivity to the imagined views of a mythical center-right white male who doesn’t exist — and it pisses off readers who do.”
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It’s not surprising that in the flood of stories about Biden’s pardon of Trump, the one thing that is missing from every liberal media story is mentioning that Biden did this because of his extreme cognitive decline! Suddenly, when the false “Biden is a cognitive vegetable” narrative isn’t useful to the right wing anymore, then the NYT reporters suffer grave amnesia about their 500 previous articles about how Biden’s cognitive decline was an absolute fact!
Imagine if the NYT reporters actually believed the false narratives they legitimized in the 500 stories they wrote to prove they were “objective”:
The pardon would be this story: “Very elderly Biden, an old man suffering extreme cognitive decline, forgot that he ever promised not to pardon Hunter and pardoned him.”
Biden pardoned Hunter because cognitively unfit presidents may do things like that, period. It’s no more newsworthy than Trump’s own cognitive failings, which the NYT has censored because it is simply not newsworthy.
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I just cannot fathom the fact that the DNC did not challenge and results in any of the swing states. No recounts?? Especially when we know there were at least 60 bomb threats on election day.
We were told over and over again that the DNC was ready to protect our votes. As the totals get closer and closer something sure smells fishy.
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REALLY!!!…..4 yrs ago when the RNC and Republican voters were calling for recalls, Team Blue was talking about how fair elections were/are and how there is virtually NO voter fraud. Now, Team Blue should start shouting that the election was unfair because their person lost? Give me a break! As if calling trump a fascist and a Nazi a few million more times was going to change the outcome SMH!. Team Blue lost…..and they lost big….maybe not in #s, but in every which way, shape, and form. It’s time for a regroup of Team Blue to see if they can regain the trust of a lot of people who decided to vote for a con man willing to blow up the corrupt system.
A reset is what “the people” voted for and now they get to have a go of it. Those of us who voted for the losing side will have to suffer our consequences along with those trump voters who will likely suffer their own bad consequences. It may not be pretty or comfortable, but “the People” spoke and this is what we have.
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Mostly agree, Lisa. Especially that last part. I truly want to see Trump do what he promised because it will not benefit them and may hurt them. Already, a few seem concerned about these Cabinet picks. Especially Gaetz, Kennedy and Gabbard.
I don’t say a word but in my head I think: this is what you voted for. Now you have it.
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it is well know the GOP was working to circumvent election results. Asking for a recount is not storming the Capitol. It is time the DNC learn how to fight.
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These are the fruits of the move into the heavy low-institutional trust society that Trump accelerated.
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Harris dis not lose big. That said, she lost to a man who is arguably the most dangerous American since Huey Long. And Ling was more honest. I know Lisa maintains Democrats need to focus away from human rights for LGBTQ folks and more on bread and butter, others want the focus on possible fraud.
If Democrats want to win, they must start with attention to local support. Unfortunately, this takes time, and that may be a precious commodity if we continue to allow billionaires to buy the media. Anti-trust anyone?
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Bernie Sanders is taking the right approach. He is agreeing with Elon Musk about military/defense spending being out of control after failing 7 audits and billions missing. Elizabeth Warren is willing to back the Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-Deremer. Matt Gaetz is out. This is how is going to work for now.
The US and Democracy will not die tomorrow or over the next 4 years….but it will be tested. Team Blue needs to have a pow-wow and realize that what they had/have to offer (and has been offering for years!) wasn’t what “the people” wanted. The election was fair and the people who lost aren’t happy, but they need to man-up and make the best of it for now. Complaining that the election was unfair/stolen is just fueling a fire that doesn’t need to be stoked.
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Why do I think that Musk won’t touch military spending but will take an axe to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.
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lol, yes, bet on it. It’s not the social security fund that’s paying Musk to put America’s satellites into orbit.
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I don’t know what’s in Musk’s OR trump’s mind. The point being is that 2 politicians (of the blue variety) are willing to extend an olive branch (sort of) and are trying to have discussions instead of ranting and raging and accusing and name calling.
Team Blue lost! In 2 yrs they have the chance to win back some seats and in 4 years they have another chance to take control. What is the DNC going to do about its obvious problems? I live in a blue state (MD), in a blue county and I travel often thru parts of blue PA and DE (blue state). I saw more trump signs everywhere I went, even in places that are typically blue areas. People want REAL and NOTICEABLE change and they voted for trump to blow it up. This is what we ALL must live with….even if some of us don’t like it and more will soon figure it out.
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rratto, I totally agree with you about recounts.
The Democrats have never objected to recounts and have been entirely consistent in this. In 2020, Trump was allowed many recounts without objection, and the news media conveniently “forgot” how Trump – with their help- made asking for a recount in 2016 the equivalent of claiming that there was evidence of voter fraud.
I realize that in a era when the NYT is the legitimizing arm of the right wing propaganda machine, there was no way for the Dems to even ask for recounts without the NYT running 10 stories a day for weeks screaming about how it is hypocritical for the Dems to even ask for a recount when the Dems were critical when Trump incited an insurrection to overturn an election. The NYT conveniently leaves out information that would better inform people that the right wing narrative isn’t true (the many recounts Trump got in 2020), so it’s not surprising that so many people think it would be wrong for Dems to even ask for a recount when the Dems objected to Trump’s violent insurrection attempt. False equivalency.
What the Dems should really do is an in depth analysis of the UNDERVOTES for Trump and where they came from.
Trump won many swing states by counting ballots that only voted for Trump and no other candidate. There was an unusually high number of those kinds of votes for Trump.
What I would hope to find is that that happened consistently in both swing states and states where either Trump or Harris won by large margins.
But if there were disproportionately high numbers of undervote ballots only marked for Trump in swing states but not all states, then that’s a red flag that further investigation is needed. There may be an explanation, but it should be rational.
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REALITY CHECK —
How much can Trump actually accomplish?
Trump didn’t win even a majority of the We the People vote. More Americans voted for someone else to be President than voted for Trump who got only 49.97% of the peoples’ votes. So, Trump’s win was not a “mandate” to do whatever he wants.
Republicans are also a long way from “overwhelmingly” in control of Congress. The Republican hold on the House of Representatives is the smallest margin in 100 years at 220 Republicans and 215 Democrats, so the Republicans will need 100% of all their members in Congress to pass laws. Getting 100% is nearly impossible, so the Republican agenda will be stalled on many controversial issues.
For example, Trump wants to eliminate the Department of Education — but, dozens of Republican Red States depend on the DoE’s Title 1 federal funds to operate their public school systems, so there will be no 100% Republican vote to eliminate the DoE.
THE NONDELEGATION DOCTRINE: Article I, Section 1, of our Constitution states: “ALL [emphasis added] legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” What that means is that ONLY Congress can make laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in “Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha” that the clear intent of our Constitution is that laws are to be written ONLY by Congress, not by some other federal entity, including the President. In “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency”, the Court ruled that federal agencies can’t create regulations that carry the weight of law. And in “Loper Bright v. Raimondo”, the Court recently overruled the Chevron Doctrine and declared that federal courts can no longer recognize as law rules and regulations issued by federal agencies.
Many of the Executive Orders and National Emergency Act (NEA) edicts that Trump has said he will issue have the same weight of law that the Supreme Court has ruled in the above cases can only be made by Congress, not by federal agencies or by the President. This is called “The Nondelegation Doctrine” and the Democrats and other organizations will use it to challenge most of the Executive Orders and NEA edicts that Trump tries to issue, tying them up in the courts for a long time — and the Supreme Court’s rulings will likely rule against Trump because of Article 1, Section 1, of our Constitution.
If Trump imposes tariffs on foreign goods, inflation and unemployment will soar. Even the most conservative organizations, like The Cato Institute, point out that the tariffs Trump imposed during his first term caused inflation and unemployment (click on the link below to read The Cato tariff report). Walmart and other retailers have already said that they will have to raise prices if the tariffs go into effect. So, if Trump does impose tariffs at all, they will likely be token tariffs, but they will be made with a great deal of publicity to make voters think he’s keeping his campaign promises.
The result of all of this is that voters will be upset in 2026 midterm elections — as they were in the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first term when they elected a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives — so in 2026 they’ll likely elect a Democrat majority to the House again and Congress will be deadlocked…again.
THE FACT IS that our nation is 50-50 divided and has been for a long time. And that results in a lot of political and media Sturm und Drang but not much being accomplished by our government, just as in the past.
https://www.cato.org/publications/separating-tariff-facts-tariff-fictions
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these are good points. Some of this does depend on a reasonable Supreme Court, which has not been the case at all. We have seen this court create an imperial version of the executive when they declared immunity in the recent decision.
This is why I think the Senate is our best hope. Giving up power is unnatural.
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The bar was very low but the Senate GOP has outperformed my expectations so far. Fingers crossed.
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There has to be a way to address the disconnect between the POLICIES people vote for vs. the PEOPLE they send to office.
As a Floridian, I am just done with a majority of voters voting for women’s choice (even if it didn’t meet the 60% threshold), small class sizes, restoring felons’ voting rights, sales and/or property tax increases for public schools, etc., over the years, yet on the same ballot send DeSantis, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and a slew of legislators to the state capital who will do everything to undermine the liberal-coded amendments that pass.
Class Sizes: Passed, but it turned into school averages versus classroom by classroom enforcement. Nowadays, districts are pretty much free from any consequences for exceeding limits.
Sales and Property Taxes: Districts sales tax referendums help support school construction and renovation. Now districts have to share that revenue with charter schools. I’m not sure if property tax increases to support daily operations have to be shared. DeSantis came out against local tax increases for public schools.
Felon Voting: Passed, but they have hoops they have to jump through before they get their rights restored, often resulting in them not trying at all.
Etcetera.
When will the voter actually examine the policies of the people they vote for to see if they match the votes they cast on amendments and other referendums?
This has to be a discussion in Democratic circles. People support Democratic policies but vote for Republicans.
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The vast majority of voters are neither particularly smart nor well-informed. You’re not going to change the voters. If voters don’t like Dem pols as people, then Dems need to find a way to run candidates that voters will like as people.
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Maybe it was just me, but I thought that Kamala was very likable, and that Trump was detestable. If Dems need a “likable” candidate, who better than Kamala.
Donald, on the other hand, is gross. A lying racist sexist predator whose only love is money.
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https://www.planetcritical.com/p/cyber-security-experts-warn-election-hacked?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
interesting read
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rratto,
I just replied to your post above mentioning exactly this issue!
I think this is important to be analyzed more thoroughly by the Dems.
thanks for the link.
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