Trump Can Take His Seventy-Five Million Votes and Go Fuck Himself

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2000 and 2016 yet I don’t recall them or their supporters making much of the maddening fact that they got more votes than their opponent yet lost the presidency all the same.

Hillary Clinton didn’t constantly pop up on cable news to brag about the tens of millions of votes she received and warn Donald Trump about the terrible dangers of disrespecting Pantsuit Nation. 

Al Gore did not brag about the incredible number of votes he received, and how they proved that he should be a major political force going forward, a shadow president, as it were, the powerful and respected leader of the opposition. 

Yet ever since Donald Trump lost the presidency he and his supporters have relentlessly trumpeted the 75 million votes he received as incontrovertible proof that nearly half the country passionately supports him and his movement. 

The not so subtle implication is that Democrats, and Republicans for that matter, who criticize Trump for being corrupt and dishonest, racist, sexist and so obsessed with power that he was willing to threaten elected officials and incite an insurrection to overturn an election he lost they are, by extension, saying that the seventy-five million hard-working, patriotic Americans who voted for Trump are also corrupt, dishonest, racist, sexist and, if not openly fascist, then at least fascist-friendly. 

Needless to say, Republicans are NOT about to let Democrats get away with suggesting that supporting a hate-fueled wannabe dictator with the maturity and anger issues of a tantrum-prone kindergartener somehow makes you a bad person. 

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton did not constantly brag about the number of votes they receive, or insist that it entitled them to enormous power because they understood that in our system the Commander-in-Chief is the President of the United States, not just the President of his own party. 

Joe Biden entered office knowing that roughly half the country supports Conservative ideas like limited government, lower taxes, less regulation and a more robust military and that he needs to keep that in mind when making decisions. 

By constantly mentioning that 75 million people voted for Trump, the ex-president and his cult are suggesting not that the candidate representing those principles got enough support for a respectable second place finish but that 75 million people passionately believe that the President of the United States should be a race-baiting bigot and crazed narcissist who spends all his time watching FOX News and rage-tweeting racist, deplorable, childish nonsense.

I’m sure that many of the people who voted for Trump did so because they loved his obnoxious persona and breathless desire to own the libs but I suspect that many more voted for him because they were lifelong Republicans who were going to vote for the GOP candidate no matter how terrible. 

That’s the arrogance and entitlement of Trump and his people. He thinks he’s bigger and more important than his party, and that when Republicans voted for him they weren’t voting for the Conservative candidate so much as they were swearing eternal devotion to him personally, as their lord and master as well as their presidential preference.

Trump likes big, impressive numbers he can toss around relentlessly and 75 million votes is, in fact, a big, impressive number, if considerably smaller and less impressive than the 81 million votes Joe Biden won. 

But Trump and the “but he got 75 million votes” brigade can go fuck themselves for eternity if they think that entitles the twice-impeached ex-president to anything more than official recognition as the unmistakable, incontrovertible loser of the 2020 presidential election. 

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Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace

Also, BUY the RIDICULOUSLY SELF-INDULGENT, ILL-ADVISED VANITY EDITION of  THE WEIRD ACCORDION TO AL, the Happy Place’s first book. This 500 page extended edition features an introduction from Al himself (who I co-wrote 2012’s Weird Al: The Book with), who also copy-edited and fact-checked, as well as over 80 illustrations from Felipe Sobreiro on entries covering every facet of Al’s career, including his complete discography, The Compleat Al, UHF, the 2018 tour that gives the book its subtitle and EVERY episode of The Weird Al Show and Al’s season as the band-leader on Comedy Bang! Bang! 

Only 23 dollars signed, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here