The US elections – How to do better next time

It has been impossible for anyone to ignore the results of the recent election in the US. The orange candidate won in his words with ‘a landslide victory’, but in our fact-checked reality only with an ever so slight margin. Obviously, this depends on what numbers you are looking at: the number of electors or the number of actual votes.

The results:

  • Electors:
    • Reps: 312
    • Dems: 226
  • Actual votes:
    • Reps: 77 302 580
    • Dems: 75 017 613

The only thing the above demonstrates is that it must pay off to target certain states with a higher number of electors while ignoring the states with fewer. In a country calling itself the greatest democracy on earth, the method used to count votes seems rather undemocratic to me.

Another thing clearly shown this time was the number of folks that did not get out and cast their vote, about 70 million. This implies that about a third of the voters stayed at home and watched the telly.

What about the non-voters?
Given the numbers above, a third for the Reps, another third for the Dems, and a third not voting, it seems that something needs to be done to get more folks to cast their votes. For this, it needs to be investigated why they did not vote and then address whatever reasons surfaced.

What about the candidates?
The orange Rep candidate won a lot of votes by lying about what people want to hear:

  • Biden caused inflation
  • Gas and egg prices must come down
  • Illegal immigrants are the cause of the increase in crime
  • Crime numbers are up
  • Biden is the cause of the Gaza war still going on
  • He’ll end the Ukraine war shortly after being elected but ultimately within 24 hours of his inauguration
  • Tariffs on all imports will be paid by the producer

While in the fact-checked reality:

  • The inflation was worldwide, Biden handled it well and made it go down in the US
  • Problems in the poultry industry make the prices of eggs high, gas was never expensive
  • There’s very little crime by illegal immigrants
  • In reality, crime numbers were down
  • The Biden administration certainly could have done a better job and faster, but he did get a cease-fire agreement
  • The orange Rep did not end the Ukraine war, not shortly after being elected, nor within the first 24 hours of his presidency
  • The promised tariffs will be paid by the importers of goods and raise the prices of these goods for the consumer

The orange Rep stuck to spreading his lies and making promises he knew he had no intention of keeping. To top it off, he alleged was the only person on earth who could do something about the terrible state of the US. In fact, he claimed to be sent by God himself, something that many an eager TV evangelist was happy to confirm. As soon as the orange Rep was elected, he backed on many of his promises.

Instead, he signed a large number of executive orders to reverse Biden’s executive orders and to make statements. A few examples:

  • Biden’s cap on medicine prices was reversed
  • The January 6th ‘hostages’ were pardoned – all 1500 of them, including those being aggressive towards the Capitol Police
  • Becoming a US citizen by birth is no longer automatically the case and instead depends on the status of the parents
  • The Gulf of Mexico will be renamed to the Gulf of America
  • There are about 200 more…

Notably, none of these executive orders made life easier for his voters. Some, like the medicine price cap, instead demonstrate the opposite as also many of the MAGA cult crowd can be assumed to depend on prescription drugs. A life-saving essential drug such as insulin for diabetics will now again cost 10 times as much as it would cost in the EU. Once again, diabetics will have to choose between food for their kids or meds.

One would think that the orange Rep’s voters, the MAGA cult crowd, should have seen this coming. But, as is usually the case within cults, they did not. Their orange dear leader cannot do anything wrong.

And now what?
If you’re still reading this, you will have little doubt about my political affinity, nor about what candidate I prefer would have won the US elections. While this run did not deliver the results the Dems hoped for, preparations for the next elections have to start now!

We have established there are three groups of voters:

  1. The Rep voters, consisting of:
    • The MAGA cult crowd
    • Traditional Rep voters
  2. The Dem voters
  3. The non-voters

The MAGA Rep voters are unlikely to be turned. As their affinity to the orange cult leader is absolute, no effort should be made here.

There’s a good chance that traditional Rep voters slowly will be disappointed in the new administration and cautiously consider looking across the aisle. The trigger for this is most likely the administration of the orange Rep prez, who alienates his base by hanging out with the richest of the richest men in the US. All of that while ignoring his voters and not getting his promises done. The only promise he kept so far is pardoning the J6 criminals. On the flip side, prices will go up as tariffs are implemented. Obviously, efforts to flip this part of the Rep voters need to be made. Remember, the differences between the two sides are minimal!

With only days into the new administration, the Dem voters are already seeing all the bad sides of that administration. There’s no need to convince them to vote Dem even next time, they will anyway!

The group of non-voters will be crucial for the next elections. As such, any effort to inform the voters in an attempt to have them vote Dem next time should be aimed toward this group.

Next election?
The US election system is based on a four-year term for the president, and two-year ‘midterms’ for part of the Congress and the Senate. The current situation gives the Reps a majority in Congress and the Senate, and a Rep prez. Whilst this may sound ideal, in reality there’s only a small majority in Congress, and only a few absent or decent Reps will tip the scale in favor of the Dems. Ideally, either Congress or Senate (or both) should have a Dem majority next time.

As we established earlier, the group to focus on is the non-voters, there are two years to work on this. Unfortunately, this strategy is true for both the Dems and the Reps. So, whatever side you are on (though I prefer the Dems):

The midterms are on their way,
get started now!

Good luck!

Another thing…
With the US election system based on electors rather than an absolute vote count, time must be spent to either abolish the elector system or analyze where to put the greatest effort to inform the voters.

Simultaneously, efforts must be made to inform the public what promises made by candidates cannot be kept. This includes fact-checking by the press and social media, both of whom demonstrated extremely bad behavior lately. The press avoided calling out the orange Rep candidate, while Meta tycoon Zuckerberg announced the removal of fact-checking on Meta’s platforms, Facebook, Instagram Threads, Messenger, etc.

Before we end this, let’s conspire!
A few days ago, the orange Rep prez casually mentioned at a rally that the state of Pennsylvania was won thanks to the IT skills of his new best friend f-elon. That should make the press wonder about what he meant by that remark. The press did not react…

Paul
2025-01