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November 05, 2004

What constitutes a "mandate"?

Cheney says that Bush won a "mandate" with his election victory. Bush himself talks about the "will of the people" and "political capital."

Here's how the numbers break down:

Eligible voters: 200 million

Number who voted: 120 million.

Number who voted for Bush: 59.5 million.

That means that President Bush won re-election with the votes of less than 30% of the eligible voters. Yet his policy choices will affect 100% of the eligible voters.

Where's the mandate?

Don't get me wrong here. If the situation were reversed and Kerry had prevailed with similiar numbers, no doubt there would have been talk of a Kerry mandate from Democrats. And no matter which way the elections go, the partisans buy into the whole mandate rhetoric.

I've read several times over the years about how much higher voter participation is in other democracies in the world. And yet here we sit in our myopic world talking about near record levels of participation when in fact only 60% of those eligible to do so participated.

Where's the mandate?

Posted by Kevin at November 5, 2004 08:26 PM