As incredibly disappointing as that is to me, the fact is this is only the 2nd time the Reps have won the popular vote.

In other words the US leans left and Reps only win because of the electoral system.

> the fact is this is only the 2nd time the Reps have won the popular vote.

Definitely not, where did you get that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden...

hmm I read that somewhere this morning but it seems to be way off. I stand corrected.

Second time in the current millennium is probably the talking point you saw; Reagan was the the last Rep president to win two terms with a popular vote majority.

I would argue the Democratic Party is hardly "left-wing". The old joke is that the US has two parties: the right wing party and the very right wing party. They have moved a bit to the left though, but many "left wing" policies they support have broad universal support among the left and right in Europe. Today it's more the centre/centre-right party and the monster raving looney party.

But yes, the system is not great. This matters even more in the senate elections by the way, where every state gets two senators regardless of population size. I get the argument that you don't want densely populated cities dominating large swaths of rural areas, but 1) elections are about people and not trees, and 2) now it's the reverse where sparsely populated rural areas dominate. So...

All true, and I feel there's hope that this is the wake-up call the American left needs; that if they keep playing the role of the centrist establishment what they end up crafting is a super boring campaign that no one feels the passion to get out and vote for. Total voter turnout this election is shaping up to be significantly lower on the left (-15M currently) versus the right (-3M) as compared to 2020.

I think the takes that this is the right taking over America etc are super doomerist. The more accurate story is: The left put up a really boring, bad candidate. The only campaign the left has figured out how to run for literally the past three elections is "stop Trump", and its not even resonating with their own voters anymore. What are they going to run on in 2028 when there isn't a Trump to stop anymore?

The left needs to wake up and have a Trump moment of their own.

Trump is incredibly boring. All he does is throw insults and is obsessed with personal loyalty. He has barely any meaningful ideas at all, and has very little interesting to say. It's almost all just politics of grievances and whipped up anger, at times based on abject malicious lies.

That really is the problem: one side runs a nihilistic campaign completely unencumbered by any truth, morality, or any sense of decency, and the side, well, doesn't. There are two sets of rules and two games being played here. That much has been obvious for almost a decade now. So how do you counter that? Well, no one really knows.

The little he has to say still got him the most powerful position in the world, which is a problem. I am thoroughly afraid of his capability to destroy and deceive.

Progressive policies are broadly popular; inevitably, some totalitarian and intolerant wokeists always end up hijacking the progressive wing, driving the center rightward.

They also have broad support in the US, but once a policy gets the socialism word attached to it it loses popularity.

For example, the ACA is very popular. Obamacare is not. It's all about the messaging.

Just a reminder that not all votes have been counted yet.

Yeah, if we talk about it, counting votes for days/weeks, and no ID laws are ridiculous.

Counting for days is ok. Having fights about it for a week or two is also ok. None of those break anything.

The no ID culture and everything around it... I honestly can't understand it.

Counting for days is not OK. To ensure fair counting you need to have poll watchers from all interested parties present during voting and counting, and it is difficult to be present over 96 hours period - people need to sleep, and they can't observe the ballots repository or counting while they sleep.

There is no reason why all ballots can't be counted it a few hours. If more people are needed to do it, then so be it.

Counting votes for days/weeks. No ID laws. States not allowing pre-counting votes. States not allowing early voting. Having to wait 7 hours to vote at some polling locations vs 10 minutes at others. Allowing some forms of state agency issued ID to vote but not others.

I'm sure everyone from every side can come up with their own list. How about we solve it all once and for all.

The margin is so large that it doesn't matter (I did check before commenting). Something truly spectacular and unprecedented needs to happen for Harris to win the popular vote.

This is completely untrue. While Trump is favored, there are around 7 million votes left to count in California alone. Predominantly from major cities. Harris is expected to gain a net of almost 3 million from that

No it's not. Harris has less than a 1% chance of winning the popular vote at this stage. You can put $100 on her right now and make $20K when she wins.

That's not how I read it when I looked earilier, but we'll see how it turns out. I can't be bothered to check again, and I don't think it's an important point to argue right now. For what it's worth, I hope you're right and I'll gladly be wrong here.

The popular vote would be very different if it weren't for the electoral college.