Defining Landslides Down
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The good people who edit the Wikipedia entry for “Landslide victory” offers a pretty good definition: “A landslide victory implies a powerful expression of popular will and a ringing endorsement by the electorate for the winner’s political platform.”
Pretty much every component of this definition is subjective. What’s the criteria for “a powerful expression of popular will” or a “ringing endorsement by the electorate?” Heck if I know, but we can at least look at some of the U.S. elections that everyone agrees are examples of “landslide victories” in the post-war era:
1984. Reagan defeated Mondale 58.8-40.6% (18.2% margin) in the popular vote and by 525-13 in the electoral college.
1980. Reagan defeated Carter 50.7-41.0% (9.7% margin) in the popular vote and by 489-49 in the electoral college.
1972. Nixon defeated McGovern 60.7-37.5% (23.2% margin) in the popular vote and by 520-17 in the electoral college.
1964. Johnson defeated Goldwater 61.1-38.5% (22.6% margin) in the popular vote and by 486-52 in the electoral college.
1956. Eisenhower defeated Stevenson 57.4-42.0% (15.4% margin) in the popular vote and by 457-73 in the electoral college.
What about “gray area” elections? I can think of two that occasionally get described as “landslides.”
2008. Obama defeated McCain 52.9-45.7% (7.2% margin) in the popular vote and by 365-173 in the electoral college.
1988. Bush defeated Dukakis 53.4–45.6% (7.8% margin) in the popular vote and by 526–111 in the electoral college.
The current count gives Trump a 50.7-47.7% (3% margin) in the popular vote. This is likely to shrink. His “electoral vote landslide” will, when all is said and done, almost certainly be 312-226.
Obama did better by both metrics in 2012, a year that only a handful of people characterize as even an “electoral college landslide.”
What about “coattails?” Trump may have carried McCormick across the finish line. The three definitive Senate flips were in deep red states. The GOP will, at best, see some marginal gains in the House.
Mandates are not a thing. But if they were, Trump’s margin of victory is hardly the kind of “ringing endorsement” that confers legitimacy on his coming radical overhaul of the federal government.
Don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking otherwise.
