Thread by @ashtonpittman

How American democracy works:

•Presidency
Candidate A: 66 million votes
Candidate B: 63 million
Winner: Candidate B

•Bills
Yea: 54 senators
Nay: 35 senators
Result: Nay

•Senate Control
Party A: 123 million votes
Party B: 99 million votes
Result: Party B wins 53/100 seats

What I'm referencing:

•Presidential elections
Hillary Clinton won 66 million votes; Trump won 63 million

•Bills
54 senators voted for the Jan. 6 commission, 35 against; the 35 killed the bill.

•Senate Control
Dem candidates for US Senate won 123 million votes for Senate votes across all races btwn 2014, 2016 & 2018; Republicans won 99 million.

Only in 2014 did GOP win more raw votes, with + 3 million. (Dems won 11 million more in 2016; 18 million more in 2018).

I combined 2014, 2016 and 2018 because it includes all 50 US Senate seats.

And despite the fact that Democrats won 24 million more cumulative votes for US Senate, the result after all three elections was 53 GOP seats, 45 Democratic seats (+2 Dem leaning independents) in 2019.

The way our system works isn't how you'd typically expect a democratic republic to work, because on virtually every level, there's a major bias towards the minority party—which in effect results in the average white voter having far more power than the average non-white voter.

If you've wondered why the Republican Party insists on catering to white voters and doesn't do more to create a broader coalition, it's because our system is set up to essentially reward it for focusing only on a select group of white voters who make up a minority of the country.

If you combine 2016, 2018 and 2020 U.S. Senate votes, you get:

Republicans: 119.7 million votes
Democrats: 146.1 million votes

Raw Vote Lead: Democrats by 26.4 million

Result: A 50-50 tie, with Democrats holding the majority only because Vice President Harris broke the tie.