Generational Dynamics World View

[pbrower2a]

Proof that Democrats cheated?

Uh no. 

The 81 million-74 million difference in votes between Trump and Biden relates to Democrats winning handily in the urban areas (and much of Suburbia is legitimately urban), which reflected that well-educated people of practically every identifiable ethnic or religious group and practically all non-white, non-Anglo  majorities went against Donald Trump. Biden may have won fewer counties, but Trump did very well in rural areas that often have shrinking populations. 

As for Ohio -- as all of Ohio's cities except Columbus are in deep decline, the rural vote in Ohio becomes far more important in shaping the electoral result. Iowa is less  decrepit, but Iowa has no large area of urban growth. Too bad. Except for the fire-and-ice climate and the poor scenery, Iowa is a good place to live. Want your kids to be well educated? Iowa is a good place for that. Florida? Republicans had  classic Red-baiting ads targeting Cuban-Americans that said that Joe Biden was a pinko Commie-enabling leftist, connecting him to Castro and Maduro. 

Let's remember: the 477 counties that Biden won have the bu8lk of the American population. (I'm not sure that you are counting "independent cities in Virginia; Virginia has lots of them).

In 2008, the New York Times had an interactive tool that allowed people to figure how Obama won. It turns out that 70 or fewer communities were enough to give Obama the majority of the vote. 

Yeah, yeah, yean... I look at the county map in which Harris County (containing Houston) and Kenedy County (I spelled it right) have similar area. One has a giant population and one probably has more rattlesnakes than people (it is ranch country with few towns, none over 1000 people). Biden won Harris County by a gigantic number. Trump won Kenedy County handily. 


 


The Electoral College does distort the vote some, so as in 2000 and 2016 Democrats could run up the popular vote in a few states and get a clear majority of the vote while Republicans won more of the 'close' states. That came close to happening in 2020. Still, a vote in Philadelphia is as valid as a vote in the very right-wing, thinly-populated area of Pennsylvania's Appalachians. 

I'm not going to argue here what a horrid President Trump is, as I have said enough on this topic before. So what did Donald Trump have to offer urban poor people? How did he offend the vast majority of people with college degrees? Even in the landslide  loss of Barry Goldwater in 1964, "AuH2O" still managed to get a bare majority among college-educated people. I'm guessing that well-educated people are less likely to trust their visceral feelings. College grads gave the majority of their vote to Ike in 1952 and 1956 and to Obama in 2008 and 2012. Yes, Biden in 2020.

To be sure, holding a college degree was much more a sign of being part of the social and economic elite in the 1950's. The more relevant comparison would be between the high-school diploma (yet to become a majority achievement) in the 1950's and a college degree in more recent times. When the dumb and disadvantaged did not get high-school diplomas, Ike won the majority of people with high-school diplomas.       

Trump won the people who vote on visceral concerns. Biden won the thinking person's vote. The latter makes governing easier and more effective.

....OK. Let's show how the maps can distort the vote. This is New Mexico:



A split by territory is almost even. Still, Joe Biden won the state by just over 10%. Outside of Greater Albuquerque, New Mexico is quite R. A vote in Albuquerque means no more or less than a vote in Clovis.