Why has the GOP still been able to win the popular vote in congressional elections?

[Hardkill]

The Republican Party has become more unpopular than the Democratic party on the national level. Regarding presidential elections, they've only won the popular vote once since 1988 and actually haven't ever won a majority of moderate voters since 1984. The GOP senators have overrepresented their constituents way too much. The Democratic senators represent about 40-something million more people than Republican senators do even when the US Senate has a 50-50 split. Republicans have also gotten away with having a 20-something seat advantage for US House elections, and state legislative elections due to the gerrymandering since 2010. Conservative judges on the federal level have also become really unpopular amongst the general population. Trump and the MAGA Republicans have been costing Republicans an extraordinary number of elections at both the national and state level with their right-wing extremism.

Yet, Republicans actually won the popular vote for both the US Senate and US House elections in the 2022 midterms. They also won the popular vote in both the US Senate and US House elections in the 2016 general election. Why is that?

[Leo Gura]

Because the US electoral system is based on tiny local districts, many of which are insanely gerrymandered.

Of course in a tiny rural county Repubs will win. That's the only way they have any power. If they actually had to win on broad popular votes they would have less than half the power they do.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Hardkill]

59 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because the US electoral system is based on tiny local districts, many of which are insanely gerrymandered.

Of course in a tiny rural county Repubs will win. That's the only way they have any power. If they actually had to win on broad popular votes they would have less than half the power they do.

Wait but it says that in the 2022 midterms, the Republican house candidates got 54,506,136 votes while the Democratic House candidates got 51,477,313 votes in total for all candidates throughout the entire country. That means that the Republicans won the total popular vote nationwide for 2022 US House elections by more than 3 million votes. Are you saying that gerrymandering has also rigged the popular vote in heavy favor of the GOP in House elections?

Edited August 26, 2023 by Hardkill

[Leo Gura]

@Hardkill Your numbers sound wrong or misinterpreted.

[Hardkill]

Really? 

It shows here in wikipedia what the Dems and Repubs got for the total popular vote in the 2022 House elections:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections

 

Am I missing something?

[Leo Gura]

Hmmm.... perhaps I'm wrong.

[Hardkill]

32 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Hmmm.... perhaps I'm wrong.

Well, then I wonder if it has to do with the fact that usually not enough young voters (who obviously lean liberal/progressive) show up during the off year elections. They said that actually they were more registered Republican voters who voted than registered Democrat did for the 2022 midterms. Yet, there have always been more eligible voters who are Democrats than Republicans in the entire USA.

It's sad that a lot of times the Democratic party can't energize the base as much as the Republican Party can.

Could it be that even though the majority of Americans are on the side of Democrats, the Democratic party just can't message as well as the Republican party can.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Hardkill

[Leo Gura]

As I have said before, generally speaking, most people are pretty conservative because they follow tradition blindly. And then on top of that you got tons of conservative media brainwashing.

Progressives are never a majority of the population. Which is why so few Progressives ever win around the world.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Hardkill]

15 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

As I have said before, generally speaking, most people are pretty conservative because they follow tradition blindly. And then on top of that you got tons of conservative media brainwashing.

Progressives are never a majority of the population. Which is why so few Progressives ever win around the world.

Yeah, the damn right wing media ecosystem. Though considering when you put together the majority of moderate voters and almost all liberal voters in the country haven't the majority of Americans truly in favor of the Democratic party for a very long time? Why has the GOP become a minoritarian party that can't even seem to win even a majority of voters who identify as moderate?

I hope liberals/progressives one day succeed with building a left-wing media ecosystem that will be able to drown out the toxic conservative media. Isn't that what about channels like Pod Save America are all about?

Edited August 26, 2023 by Hardkill

[Hardkill]

I actually just realized that one other big reason as to why Republicans sometimes still win the popular vote in house elections even though they can't win the popular vote at the presidential level. It's because the total voter turnout for all US House elections combined in any general election season has always been significantly lower than the voter turnout for any presidential election. It's probably because not as many voters in America don't care as much or don't understand enough of the effect those elections as much as they do about presidential elections.

Total US Senate elections voter turnout of course are never nearly as high as the total US House elections because only a third of the US Senate seats throughout the whole country are up for election during each presidential and midterm election year. Plus, senate elections are still not as well-known or as popular as the presidential elections are.

The total voter turnout for all congressional elections in midterm elections is also much less than it is during general election seasons.

[Leo Gura]

Conservatives can be pretty effective at turning out their voters through stuff like church pressure. Also, older people tend to vote more reliably and are more conservative.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Leo Gura

[How to be wise]

@Leo Gura Conservative media isn’t brainwashing anybody. They are just telling their viewers what they want to hear. 

[Schizophonia]

"Conservative" means nothing.
Most people who vote for the right are actually pro-LGBT and are just anti-immigration.