Biden has a mandate.
John Nichols tweeted, “Biden is currently winning a higher percentage of the national vote than Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968, Carter in 1976, Clinton in 1992, Clinton in 1996, or Bush in 2000. When all the ballots are counted, he will have a historic popular vote mandate.”
A mandate is important because politicians can’t make change without the support of the people. First there has to be popular support, then politicians follow the people.
Republicans don’t feel obligated to have a real mandate. I recently read an article (can’t find it now) that much of the conservative legislation passed in the last few decades did not have a popular mandate; it had a stubborn fringe group of people that yelled loudly. Being vocal and stubborn gives the impression of being a popular issue when it is not.
I recall when Republican Christine Todd Whitman won the New Jersey governor’s race by the slimmest margin in the state’s history she famously pointed out that in a democracy you only have to win by one vote. The next day she started pushing her subversive and dangerously radical agenda claiming a mandate mandate mandate. She used that word so much you’d think she was going to change her name to Governor Mandate.
Biden actually has a mandate. What Biden needs to do is to remind people of this. The grassroots need to provide evidence to back him up: rallies, floods of letters to the editor, and so on.
That’s why you should join an organization like Indivisible. Right now. Click this right now.
