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Comment by rad_gruchalski | Hacker News Reader

Nearly 50% of the US population voted for the people driving this mad agenda. Let that sink in.

And 0% of them signed the constitution, declaration of independence, or any of the fictions which authorize their government. Being forced to pick between a couple assholes and then being damned for it can be really rich (oh yes you can vote 3rd party like me -- then everyone tells you how dumb you are for wasting your vote). The federal government and executive keeps gaining more and more power via judicial branch sanctioned scope creep. I have serious reservations that you can vote your way out of that, but it is driving the ever higher stakes people see in the presidential election.

In this case, there was no symmetry between the parties and it was very clear which one will be anti-democrstoc authoritarian one.

That this will happen was clear and a feature Trump voters actively wanted.

I will totally agree you have a valid point. But ponder this, both the democratic and republican parties have held fully stacked power at various times since 1798. Why didn't any of them repeal the alien enemies act, which is clearly an authoritarian bypass of due process?

This isn't an attempt at "both parties equally bad." I understand some people and parties use the powers in a more brutal way than the other. My point is part of the problem is the power is there in the first place. You can't eliminate that with a simple vote, nor by majority vote, and in many cases the process of amending the constitution has been made so onerous you can't do it if it's block by a minority of people (that looks a lot like the guys that signed it).

Voter turnout was 64%, so really only 32% voted for it.

That's irelevant. The sample size of the population who voted is large enough to extrapolate and represent the opinion of the entire voting population.

When you don't vote you ceded your vote to the majority who did go to vote. That's how democracy works. You can't cop out because you don't like the end result.

Okay, 50% of those who voted. Does it make you feel better?

Absolutely not, but the current situation can't be understood without making the distinction.

Less than a quarter of it, but over 50% of those who voted (Trump got 77.3 million votes on a population of around 340 million)

Those who didn’t vote will have had different reasons, including “don’t care”, “my candidate will win, anyways”, “no time”, and “registering to vote was too hard for me”. We don’t know the distribution of that.

To be clear, under 50% of those who voted, but a plurality and enough to win in the electoral college.

Democracy is a beautiful thing. It's unfortunate people aren't as enlightened as you. Maybe if Dems had some self awareness and proposed policies that actually worked for people rather than demonize the electorate for sitting out or ticking the other box they wouldn't be in this situation.

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