Thinking Citizen Blog —The Seven States That Will Determine The Fate Of The Country
Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process Reform, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day
Today’s Topic: The Seven States That Will Determine the Fate of the Country
In two of the last six US presidential elections, the winner of the popular vote lost the election.
Those would be the elections of 2000 and 2016 in case you have forgotten. The vote in the Electoral College in 2024 hangs on the following seven states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the north, Georgia and North Carolina in the south, and Nevada and Arizona in the west.
Today, a few excerpts from a recent article by veteran political analyst Karl Rove.
Predictions, anyone?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
A LITTLE HISTORICAL MATH — 2020 versus 2016
1. “Mr. Trump carried all of them except Nevada in 2016.”
2. “In 2020, he (Trump) took North Carolina by 1.34 points”
3. “Mr. Biden carried the other six by between .23 and 2.78.”
NB: “To prevail Mr. Biden needs 45 of these states’ electoral votes; Mr. Trump, 51. Reaching either threshold will require winning at least three of the states.”
WHAT EACH CANDIDATE WILL TALK ABOUT IN EACH STATE WILL VARY
1.”In Michigan, they’ll talk about the auto industry.”
2. “In Pennsylvania, natural-gas production.”
3. “In Nevada. candidates must explain their view on the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste facility.”
NB: “While in Arizona, besides the border, water issues will matter.”
WHY RESIDENTS OF NON-SWING STATES ARE LUCKY
1. “Their televisions won’t be saturated with negative ads.”
2. “Their mailboxes stuffed with leaflets.”
3. Their phones endlessly pinged.”
NB: “Or their doorbells rung by campaigners.”
Opinion | The 2024 Presidential Election Comes Down to Only Seven States
https://usafacts.org/articles/what-are-the-current-swing-states-and-how-have-they-changed-over-time/
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day or change their thinking.
Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
