There has been a lot of inevitable "Why was it even this close?" talk. But the fact of the matter is that if not for the President's gross mishandling of the pandemic, he probably would have won by a landslide. As it is, Biden's win of the electoral votes, was by nearly the same margins, in nearly the same amount of states, that Trump's was in 2016. That is, Biden's win will be by around 100,000 votes out of about 145,000,000 cast.
So, although the Donald's incompetence and indifference is generally acknowledged to have been the primary cause of nearly a quarter of a million American deaths, the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression and life as we knew being put on hold for going on a year now, he still, very nearly, won re-election as President. And the pandemic was listed as the most important issue on the minds of voters, far more than even the economy.
So, it stands to reason that if we had entered 2020 with no coronavirus threat or epidemic, despite Trump's record and rhetoric over the preceding 3 years, he would have been unbeatable come election time.
So, I think this significantly ups the ante of the "Why was it even this close?" question. Because under any otherwise "normal" conditions, it would have been a Trump blowout.
There needs to be much discussion of this most distressing phenomena, and I hope this brief "introduction" helps realign the conversation from "Why so close" to "What the heck is going on here!?"
(Article changed on November 7, 2020 at 18:45)
(Article changed on November 8, 2020 at 15:16)
(Article changed on November 8, 2020 at 18:05)
