There are a few interesting little tidbits to note about this election.
First off, whereas Trump won the electoral college and therefore the election, Hillary won the popular vote (or at least seems to have, there are still a trickle of votes left to count, but mostly from solid blue states). That is to say that in total more people voted for Hillary than for Trump (at a slim margin, about 200,000 more). This is the fifth time in US history this has happened, the last time being 2000 where Bush narrowly squeezed by in the electoral college even though Gore won the popular vote by 500,000. This phenomena didn't occur at all in the twentieth century, appearing to be a strictly 19th and 21st century thing, possibly connected to how extremely divided these periods of American history are compared to the more fluid and landside-tending elections of the 20th (and before anyone infers ominous Civil War vibes in this, there were no such electoral-popular splits in the Civil War period of electoral history (1848-1865), a period more defined by dramatic party implosions and, of course, a big-ass war).
This means, interestingly enough, that of the seven Presidential elections I have lived through (I was born in 1989), the Republicans only won the popular vote once, that being in 2004. 2000 and 2016 have been Electoral-Popular splits going to the Republicans, with 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012 being Democratic victories.
There are ominous signs in this for both parties. On one hand it implies the population is drifting slowly to the left, which could put pressure on Republicans (this isn't exactly a startling idea). On the other hand, this population growth is bunching up in states that are already solidly blue as people flee the "Flyover States" for the coasts, thus draining traditionally blue midwestern states of their urban votes and creating an electoral challenge for the left that has cost them two elections in sixteen years. The story Democrats have been telling themselves is one where they keep the blue states and add quickly urbanizing states like Texas and Georgia to their ranks, but this election shows it may not be that simple for them as the rust belt is slipping out of their hands.
The other interesting detail contradicts my earlier opinions about the election. The turnout for this election... well, I'm getting conflicting reports to be honest, but it looks poor. I suspect we'll hear more about this later in the week. But what I can say is that, with only a small amount of the popular vote still left out there to count, and most of that in solid Hillary states, it is looking like Trump is performing at John McCain levels of popular vote, and below Mitt Romney. It doesn't look like there is enough vote out there to bring us up to 2008 levels or 2012 levels, so imma just call it: what really hurt Hillary wasn't people flocking to Trump, but simply an inability to get people out to vote for her, crucially in the midwest where she especially failed to resonate.
The last thing is that, forgetting the Presidential election for a bit, an unsurprising winner of the 2016 Election was Marijuana. California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada passed recreational Marijuana. They join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and DC. Further more, Medical Marijuana has passed in a further list of states so that the number of states where Marijuana prohibition is in full effect has been whittled down to just Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, and West Virginia. I can't say for certain, but it is looking like very soon the Federal Prohibition will become a dead letter and some President (Very possibly Trump, though I have no earthy clue what his position on the matter is) may just become the one who officially makes weed nationally legal.
Another interesting thing I noticed just looking over ballot measure results is that a number of minimum wage increases were put on the ballots of several states, and it looked like they all passed with respectable margins. Most of them are Blue states except Arizona, a state that went for Trump, which passed a slow-increase to $12 an hour and legally mandated paid sick leave by %59 of the vote.
First off, whereas Trump won the electoral college and therefore the election, Hillary won the popular vote (or at least seems to have, there are still a trickle of votes left to count, but mostly from solid blue states). That is to say that in total more people voted for Hillary than for Trump (at a slim margin, about 200,000 more). This is the fifth time in US history this has happened, the last time being 2000 where Bush narrowly squeezed by in the electoral college even though Gore won the popular vote by 500,000. This phenomena didn't occur at all in the twentieth century, appearing to be a strictly 19th and 21st century thing, possibly connected to how extremely divided these periods of American history are compared to the more fluid and landside-tending elections of the 20th (and before anyone infers ominous Civil War vibes in this, there were no such electoral-popular splits in the Civil War period of electoral history (1848-1865), a period more defined by dramatic party implosions and, of course, a big-ass war).
This means, interestingly enough, that of the seven Presidential elections I have lived through (I was born in 1989), the Republicans only won the popular vote once, that being in 2004. 2000 and 2016 have been Electoral-Popular splits going to the Republicans, with 1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012 being Democratic victories.
There are ominous signs in this for both parties. On one hand it implies the population is drifting slowly to the left, which could put pressure on Republicans (this isn't exactly a startling idea). On the other hand, this population growth is bunching up in states that are already solidly blue as people flee the "Flyover States" for the coasts, thus draining traditionally blue midwestern states of their urban votes and creating an electoral challenge for the left that has cost them two elections in sixteen years. The story Democrats have been telling themselves is one where they keep the blue states and add quickly urbanizing states like Texas and Georgia to their ranks, but this election shows it may not be that simple for them as the rust belt is slipping out of their hands.
The other interesting detail contradicts my earlier opinions about the election. The turnout for this election... well, I'm getting conflicting reports to be honest, but it looks poor. I suspect we'll hear more about this later in the week. But what I can say is that, with only a small amount of the popular vote still left out there to count, and most of that in solid Hillary states, it is looking like Trump is performing at John McCain levels of popular vote, and below Mitt Romney. It doesn't look like there is enough vote out there to bring us up to 2008 levels or 2012 levels, so imma just call it: what really hurt Hillary wasn't people flocking to Trump, but simply an inability to get people out to vote for her, crucially in the midwest where she especially failed to resonate.
The last thing is that, forgetting the Presidential election for a bit, an unsurprising winner of the 2016 Election was Marijuana. California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada passed recreational Marijuana. They join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and DC. Further more, Medical Marijuana has passed in a further list of states so that the number of states where Marijuana prohibition is in full effect has been whittled down to just Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, and West Virginia. I can't say for certain, but it is looking like very soon the Federal Prohibition will become a dead letter and some President (Very possibly Trump, though I have no earthy clue what his position on the matter is) may just become the one who officially makes weed nationally legal.
Another interesting thing I noticed just looking over ballot measure results is that a number of minimum wage increases were put on the ballots of several states, and it looked like they all passed with respectable margins. Most of them are Blue states except Arizona, a state that went for Trump, which passed a slow-increase to $12 an hour and legally mandated paid sick leave by %59 of the vote.
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