Half of American voters voted for this, which is far less than half of Americans. I’m almost as disappointed in the people who didn’t vote as I am in the people who voted for this.
I don't think it's fair to include the entire population of the US in that total, even the 78 million children who can't vote. And people who didn't vote made their choice as well.
By that logic, no democracy in the world elects their leaders with a 50%+ majority, not even countries with mandatory voting laws like Australia or Belgium.
It's just a matter of fact that more than half of the US did not vote for this regime. You can object that more than half of the US did not vote for any president, and we would agree.
I don't think that's a meaningful distinction. In a purely technical sense, sure, not half of the human beings alive at the time voted for one candidate. That has never happened and will likely never happen in the US.
But in common parlance, it is acceptable to say that half the country voted for one or another candidate. It happens all the time:
Just because it's common parlance does not mean it's a good practice. HN is supposed to be a forum for reasoned discussion. Any kind of sophistry or propaganda should be called out. Since Trump describes his regime as having an "unprecedented and powerful mandate", and this is actually incorrect in several ways, it is worth drawing the distinction here.
Another way in which Trump is incorrect is that his election victory margin is average among presidential elections in terms of both electoral vote margin and popular vote margin.
I only see the hill article using that parlance. I looked at the articles the hill certainly says half the country voted for Trump. It is an opinion piece you linked to though not a news piece.
The center for politics and global citizen articles do not seem to use half that way though.
For center for politics the title starts with "How the Other Half Votes" and they seem to keep to that usage and never use half of USA/America.
For Global Citizen the title starts with "Half the Planet Will Vote This Year" an they seem to stick to that and never use half of USA/America
I intentionally linked to variations on that wording to show there's a pattern. If you're looking for those exact words, you can find plenty more examples online.
I do not see the pattern you are seeing. What I would need to change my mind here are communities using the parlance correctly, understanding the meaning, and it not leading to misunderstandings to a reasonable percent of the community.
262m is the estimate for the "Population of Voting Age for Each State and the District of Columbia". Not all of these are voters, and only malicious thinking could lead to the conclusion that these people are all happy (or unhappy) with Trump.
So it is fair to include the full population of America.
> By that logic, no democracy in the world elects their leaders with a 50%+ majority
Leaders are often elected by plurality, meaning less then 50% of the voters, but the winer still has the largest number of votes[1]. Trump did not win the majority according the sources I have[2]. 'Majority' is often used as a replacement for plurality in everyday speech, but sometimes you need to get into the nitty gritty details and need the more precise definitions.
This is nitpicking. When people say that half the country voted for X, it is implied they are referring to voters, not infants. You don't need to be more precise than that. Just like if I say "everyone I hang out with prefers wine over beer", I don't include my 2-year-old nephew or my cat, both of whom I hang out with regularly.
> When people say that half the country voted for X, it is implied they are referring to voters
In this case it is a very large difference and it is important to keep it in mind, even if starting with 340 million is not the best place to start.
Google tells me the adult population of the USA is ~260 million, so 260 - 77.3 = 182.7 and 182.7/260 ~0.7. So ~70% of the adult population did not vote for Trump. It is part of Trump's job as president to represent and serve that 70%. It is also part of Trump's job to represent and serve the minority of adults who voted him into office too.
I have talked to many people over the years that did not know so few people voted or the difference between majority and plurality. These sort of details can and do lead to misunderstandings, that unfortunately, can and do waste considerable time.
