there are two ways to win the majority of votes but lose majority of districts: (1) building up superfluous majorities where you win (2) underrepresentation of your voters at the federal level
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Imagine a cult was taking over parts of America. Most people hate the cult, but where it gains power it forces 100% turn-out to vote for its candidates
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The cult could quite accurately complain that it won x% of the votes, but only won < x/2 % of the seats
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Well, that is because you only need 51% to win, so the other 49% is wasted effort
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In fact you might think it’s kinda suspicious people in those can’t-lose races turn out to vote at all...
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Now, are Dems a cult? Bottom line is that about 1/3 of Americans live in urban areas and Dems, last I checked, won 70%+ of the urban vote
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2/3 live in suburban and rural areas: GOP wins by smaller margins, but it doesn’t need to crush b/c more people live in those areas
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Maybe Dems offer a platform that is genuinely in urbanites’ interests, but on balance unattractive to everyone else
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Or maybe political campaigning is more cost-effective in denser regions so Dems double-down on canvassing people who already support them
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...or maybe it’s a cult. The bottom line is you can’t win in a federal system by running up the score in a race you already won
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The consequence of being really bad at electoral politics is, the dumber your campaign strategy is, the fewer seats-per-vote you get If Dems don’t like this, try campaigning on an issue that’s popular, like immigration restriction
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