Great question. The Ipsos poll above finds that 75% of adults believe Joe Biden is the legitimate president, and 69% say this victory was were “accurate and legitimate” rather than “the result of illegal voting and election rigging.” Lower than is should be, but majoritarian nonetheless.
Note: We learned in 2016 that number of voters is trumped by Electoral College votes. (Shoot me for that pun.) Note also: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything," which is often erroneously attributed to Josef Stalin. Note further: It's how many state legislatures pass voter suppression laws, how many cases get heard at the SCOTUS prior to 2022, how many people intend to storm the state capitols, and how many deaths does it take to destroy the democratic process.
One handy adjustment to transform popular vote polls into electoral-college weighted polls is to subtract ~4 points from the percent. In this case, 71 and 65% are still supermajorities. But you're right that this doesn't matter if majorities (or minorities!) in some states are storming capitols, restricting rights, sending alternative slates of presidential electors in 2024 etc. It just makes us sleep better at night.
While this only helps in the future and not the present, I think mandatory civics classes including studying the Constitution should be in the high school curriculum. That hopefully would get at least some basic knowledge of civics across the population.
It's disheartening that even civics is a polarized issue. We need a classical liberal education that teaches how to think, argue, and disagree. Attending a liberal arts college was one of the best decisions I've ever made, so I might be a bit biased here. My ability to think and analyze issues really improved during college. I'm unsure whether that would be a successful model due to potential polarization.
The path forward: depends on how successful "we" are at overcoming the state legislatures' voter suppression laws, the mobs storming state capitols, Fox News, etc.
How much of a majority believes the results of the 2020 election? Do we have numbers?
Great question. The Ipsos poll above finds that 75% of adults believe Joe Biden is the legitimate president, and 69% say this victory was were “accurate and legitimate” rather than “the result of illegal voting and election rigging.” Lower than is should be, but majoritarian nonetheless.
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news_and_polls/over-half-republicans-believe-donald-trump-actual-president-united-states
Note: We learned in 2016 that number of voters is trumped by Electoral College votes. (Shoot me for that pun.) Note also: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything," which is often erroneously attributed to Josef Stalin. Note further: It's how many state legislatures pass voter suppression laws, how many cases get heard at the SCOTUS prior to 2022, how many people intend to storm the state capitols, and how many deaths does it take to destroy the democratic process.
One handy adjustment to transform popular vote polls into electoral-college weighted polls is to subtract ~4 points from the percent. In this case, 71 and 65% are still supermajorities. But you're right that this doesn't matter if majorities (or minorities!) in some states are storming capitols, restricting rights, sending alternative slates of presidential electors in 2024 etc. It just makes us sleep better at night.
Hi Elliott,
While this only helps in the future and not the present, I think mandatory civics classes including studying the Constitution should be in the high school curriculum. That hopefully would get at least some basic knowledge of civics across the population.
-Elliot
Elliot: Better civics would be great. Are you an Atlantic subscriber? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/civics-education-1619-crt/618894/
It's disheartening that even civics is a polarized issue. We need a classical liberal education that teaches how to think, argue, and disagree. Attending a liberal arts college was one of the best decisions I've ever made, so I might be a bit biased here. My ability to think and analyze issues really improved during college. I'm unsure whether that would be a successful model due to potential polarization.
The path forward: depends on how successful "we" are at overcoming the state legislatures' voter suppression laws, the mobs storming state capitols, Fox News, etc.