In an article last week, I posited that the silent majority in America is angry and becoming loud. A reader — we’ll call him Lloyd — sent me the following: “Trump-supporters are neither silent nor the majority … and if we had a straight-up popular vote of what the majority of the people want, you’d never win again.”
I believe that’s a challenge to my assumptions. Are conservatives really a majority, or are they just using the Electoral College to occasionally cheat the “will of the people” to win as a minority?
The second part of Lloyd’s statement implies that Republicans have an unfair advantage due to the Electoral College. Leftists frequently charge that a Republican winner is illegitimate because he lost the popular vote. This charge was made against George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald J. Trump in 2016. To be blunt, it’s a silly claim based on faulty logic. Candidates compete according to the rules defined in the Constitution — and unless amended, those rules include the use of the Electoral College. There is no evidence that supports the claim that a different candidate would have won had different rules been used. That’s not at all different from claiming that the Kansas City Chiefs would have won the Super Bowl if they’d been playing hockey instead of football. If the electoral rules were different, the candidates would have campaigned differently. Republicans have lost the popular vote not because they can’t win it. They’ve lost the popular vote because they weren’t trying to win it. In our system, the popular vote is irrelevant.
Now let’s examine the first part of Lloyd’s statement. He claims that Trump supporters are a minority. Just to clarify, my prior piece never argued that Trump-supporters are the silent majority; it argued that Americans holding traditional conservative values are the silent majority — and Trump-supporters are clearly a subset of that group. The group would also include any voters who have switched their allegiance and the vast array of people who remain politically agnostic but still value our founding principles.
If one takes the 2020 election results as legitimate (I don’t, but that’s for another day), Biden received 80.0M votes, and Trump received 73.9M votes. However, in November of last year, the Media Research Center conducted a poll of Biden voters. Seventeen percent said they would have changed their vote had they known about any of a number of news stories spiked by the MSM. The news stories of which they were unaware included Biden scandals (sexual harassment and influence-peddling) and reporting about Trump’s successes (the economy, Middle East negotiations, and energy independence). That’s a whopping 13.6M voters who wish they had voted differently — as of November of 2020! It also means that the number of voters now opposing Biden has gone from a minority of 73.9M to a majority of 87.5M (versus 66.4M who still favor him). It’s a testament to the power of propaganda. Is it likely that any of these people have moved back into the “happy with Biden” column? Hint: People don’t like being deceived; it makes them angry.
Now let’s look at what’s happened since the election and see if events are likely to move anyone out of the “angry” column and back into the “happy” column. As Richard Fernandez aptly put it, Joe Biden has treated America to a cascade of failures. The failures started immediately after his inauguration and have gotten progressively worse.
In his first week in office, President Asterisk signed a number of executive orders that throttled the fossil fuel industry in America. Prices at the pump have jumped an average of 40% in just the last eight months. More importantly, we are dependent on foreign oil once again. Joe even begged OPEC (including such friends as Iran, Libya, and Venezuela) for help. They politely declined. Who could have seen that coming? Is this moving Americans to the “happy” or “angry” column?
President Asterisk immediately reversed President Trump’s border control protocols and triggered a humanitarian crisis. Apprehensions have reached 200,000 per month — that’s apprehensions, not total crossings. Illegals are being detained in overcrowded facilities and even under bridges — and yes, we do have children in cages again. It’s gotten so bad that the Harris/Biden administration is bussing illegals — many of them COVID-positive — around the country and dropping them off in unsuspecting communities. Is this moving Americans to the “happy” or “angry” column?
Deficit spending and ill-advised pandemic policies are creating skyrocketing inflation. Printing money has devalued the dollar, and paying people not to work has created a shortage of products and services. Any discretionary family income is rapidly being eaten up. People are losing buying power and watching the value of their savings evaporate. Is this moving Americans to the “happy” or “angry” column?
Joe has created a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which has cost America influence on the world stage. Just as he did with The Donald’s border plans, Joe threw away the Trump exit plans. Contrary to military and Intelligence Community recommendations, he ordered an immediate and unconditional exit from the country. Now we have something north of 10,000 Americans trapped in country. We’re being treated to images of panicked Afghans clinging to the side of departing aircraft, only to eventually fall to their deaths. According to a Trafalgar Poll, an astounding 70% of Americans disapprove of Joe’s handling of the exit. Is this moving anybody from the “happy” to the “angry” column?
Finally, we’re finding out what a PINO (President In Name Only) looks like — up close and personal. With crises at home and abroad, Joe is somewhere other than at his desk. News flash: America doesn’t get to call early lids! A couple trying to feed and clothe the kids don’t get to call an early lid — especially when they’re trying to keep ahead of inflation. A lineman trying to get the lights back on in a storm doesn’t get to knock off early for ice cream. Farmers don’t get to go on vacation in the middle of harvest season. Yet Joe frequently calls it a day by 2:00. He even went on vacation while Afghanistan burns — though he did break from his afternoon nap for a 15-minute angry speech. Is any of this making people happy?
All of this explains a lot about Joe’s polling. According to Reuters, his numbers among the public at large are underwater and dropping precipitously. Even low-information citizens are beginning to feel the real-world impacts of Joe’s policies. It would appear they’re less than happy.
Those like Lloyd who assume that the battle for America is over are dangerously naïve. Leftists who erroneously believe they are a clear majority are setting events in motion that they will not be able to control. To assume that those angry with current events are a mere minority, worthy only of disregard, is to ignore the reality of our political landscape.
Our political polarization is a pressure cooker. Election integrity, freedom of speech, and civil protest are the relief valves needed to prevent an explosion — and all are under attack by the left. If the left continues to turn the temperature up and block the release of pressure, the result will be predictable. There will be an explosion (metaphorically speaking). We don’t know what form the explosion will take — but it will be loud.
The opinions expressed by the author are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of ThinkCivics.com.
This article was originally published by the American Thinker. Read the original article.
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