A lot of people have no interest in having their politicians work them into an outraged frenzy.They just want their officials to do a good job and don't care about speeches and such.

A politician who attracts a more visceral audience is going to superficially look more popular than they actually are.

So going by crowd size can be deceptive.

Votes are counted, not the supposed size of stage-managed "rallies".

If there is one thing the US election of 2020 showed us is that there is zero relationship between crowd/rally attendance and voter turnout for the candidate.

One explanation is that voters may be enthusiastically voting "against" a particular candidate, in which case they would likely not be attending any rally or showing support in any meaningful way.

>If there is one thing the US election of 2020 showed us is that there is zero relationship between crowd/rally attendance and voter turnout for the candidate.

I'm not sure if this is the strongest argument in favor of your hypothesis. In most instances it would rather be an indicator of election fraud.

No comment

Super-fans who turn out at rallies - often repeatedly - get the same number of votes as the "meh, I guess I'll go vote" folks. One each.

Absolutely, Trumps super fans would travel hundreds of miles, or even just follow him from town to town like groupies. Lots of them were retired and had the time and means to do so.

Raucous nationalist cults tend to be louder and more enthusiastic than their opponents

This the same kind of gaslit thinking people used to used to delude themselves into thinking Trump won 2020.

I think parent comment is trying to make a joke by referencing the common refrain of American republicans regarding election denialism.