In that case, virtually no elected official in the US has ever had a mandate, and our government should therefore do nothing. Yes, lots of potential voters don

In that case, virtually no elected official in the US has ever had a mandate, and our government should therefore do nothing. Yes, lots of potential voters don't vote. They made that choice. It's not a new choice. This election is not much different from any other. We'd surely argue that Obama or Reagan had mandates, but they also didn't clear 50% of eligible voters. Indeed, even in Reagan's "landslide" 1980 election, he won only 50.7% of the popular vote, and only 52.6% of voters turned out - numbers not radically different from this time around - 47.2% of the popular vote where 56.9% of voters turned out.