Mandate

 

Landslide

I took my love; I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
‘til the landslide brought me down

A landslide? I thought that money voted? What do you mean it is land? Make up your mind!

Donald Trump is claiming that his election as President was a landslide and therefore he has a mandate. Huh? He received a plurality, but not a majority, of the popular vote (which is the people) but a majority of the electoral votes. A problem is how the electoral votes are awarded. A mandate is when the President is elected as the clear choice of the people AND the clear choice of the states. The popular vote is the choice of the people. The States are each awarded two electoral votes. But the electoral votes are awarded  as winner-takes-all in all but two states, instead of separately  by congressional district AND the whole state, as Nebraska does. In other words, there is no mandate if the electoral votes are combined and awarded in a winner-take-all process as if a state were a single district, unless there is a mandate according to the Nebraska method in every state. Additionally, in order for electoral voters to have a real choice, then there have to be at least three choices in each case, (win, loss, AND tie) and there were NOT three candidates in every state and congressional district. This could have been prevented if the two political parties had instead presented two slates of candidates, In this way two political parties could present four choices on a ballot. But this was also not the case.

The fact that money is better correlated with population centers, e.g., the popular vote, and NOT with land area, even if the popular vote and electoral/land vote are the same, then the popular vote is only a plurality, not a majority, And this is an indication that there is NO mandate of money, votes or states, especially not a landslide.