So, clearly about half the vote went to Trump. Stop splitting hairs please, there was enormous support for this. Whether there was an epsilon above or below some arbitrary 50% threshold is insubstantial to this discussion.

If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN.

I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls.

The die hard ride or die for Trump types that are fully on board with everything are definitely not half the country.

> If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN.

Haha true! Though if the pedantry gets in the way of the big picture then it's counter productive, one may argue.

> I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls.

Fair point. It's the person that got the votes and it could be argued that people should have known what they voted for, even if many votes surely were cast more in the spirit of voting against the other side, and it's a common effect that once a side is chosen then the mind downplays the drawbacks of the "own" side in an effort to justify the choice.

Yeah, and people are drastically [under|mis]-informed generally.

I saw a poll the other day with a question like, "since 1990, has violent crime increased or decreased?" with the usual significant / somewhat options in each direction plus a neutral option.

There's clear data that shows a substantial reduction in violent crime in the US since the 90s. Despite that, slightly over half the respondents answered that violent crime had significantly or somewhat increased.

Only 9% of respondents gave the "significantly decreased" answer that aligns to the data.

The statement made was "A majority of the voters voted for people other than Trump", not "A majority of voters voted for left wing candidates".