What’s the most extreme theoretical difference possible in electoral college outcome vs popular votes? How badly could a winning president lose the popular vote?
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In 1860, Lincoln won the electoral college with less than 40% of the popular vote. Even if his three opponents had all combined their popular votes, Lincoln would *still* have won the EC.
This result was what drove the political logic of Secession in the South.
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That and Lincoln’s perceived abolitionism which was higher in Southern minds in 1860 than in reality. What the planter class and fire-eaters could not abide was his “No more slave states” bc they knew they had to politically dominate the US or eventually go extinct as a class
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Another doughface would have kicked the can down the road another four years. Lincoln wasn’t a radical abolitionist but he was going to use the powers of his office to vigorously rebuff Southern demands. And a faction of the GOP were radical abolitionists
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Doughface is an intriguing insult. Flesh phrenology. A list of doughface vs gauntface presidents to check for correlation to effectiveness would be interesting. Maybe faces get doughy not just from more hedonism but from kneading face into more political facial contortions.
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It was a generic early 19th C insult that took on a specific sectionalism context in the bloody 1850’s
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Fat rulers are more corrupt.
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