The other day, I lectured on the early political life of Andrew Jackson. He won the popular vote in the 1824 election, but ultimately did not win the White House. The popular vote is nice but ultimately it's the votes in the Electoral College that decide the winner of a presidential election. Well, usually. Not in the case of Jackson. That's a different story.
In 1876 Samuel Tilden won the popular vote, but a special committee gave the electoral vote to Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1888 President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to Benjamin Harrison. In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote but the Supreme Court, by a vote of 5-4, gave Florida's electoral votes to George W. Bush, putting him in the White House. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the vote in the Electoral College in 2016 giving the Oval Office to Donald Trump. Interesting factoid: in each case the American people wanted the Democrat candidate but ultimately it was the Republican candidate (save JQA) who entered triumphant into the White House.
A student posed the question "so what's the use of voting if the popular vote will not be counted?" Here is my feeble attempt at an answer: Go ask a government professor. Seriously.
Of course your vote will be counted. But voting is more than a number. Voting is empowerment. Voting is action. Canvassing, donating money, placing signs in your yards, volunteering, these are all things you can do to become active during the election season that starts with voting. But voting is empowerment because voting gives you the opportunity to stop and think about the country you live in. Voting allows you to answer that super important question posed by President Ronald Reagan: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"
What a great question! Of course, life is more complex than answering a simplistic binary question. There are all sorts of factors to consider in answering that question and those factors are personal to each voter.
I think I heard a more interesting question recently because this question forces everyone to know something about American history, and, the question is about perspective. A question that could have been asked by President Reagan and President Obama. Here's the question:
"Which side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge are you on?"
