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Data isn't sexy, data doesn't sell. The "common man" neither cares about real numbers nor has the education and ability to interpret them, even in very simplifi
by Miraste 6y ago
Data isn't sexy, data doesn't sell. The "common man" neither cares about real numbers nor has the education and ability to interpret them, even in very simplified graphical form. Look at the percentage of people who can answer extremely basic questions about charts and be horrified: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/stupid-people/ https://www.unz.com/akarlin/stupid-people/
- mistermann 6y agoSo far, but has anyone ever given them something worth taking seriously? How wide of a variety of approaches have we tried? Ross Perot did all right, and he was a total amateur. If a group of people actually put some serious though and effort into it, who knows what might be possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot#1992_presidential_campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot#1992_presidential_c... In the 1992 election, he received 18.9% of the popular vote, about 19,741,065 votes, but no electoral college votes, making him the most successful third-party presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election.[46] Unlike Perot, however, other third-party candidates since Roosevelt won multiple electoral college votes: Robert La Follette in 1924, Strom Thurmond in 1948, and George Wallace in 1968. Compared with Thurmond and Wallace, who polled very strongly in a small number of states, Perot's vote was more evenly spread across the country. Perot managed to finish second in two states: In Maine, Perot received 30.44% of the vote to Bush's 30.39% (Clinton won with 38.77%); in Utah, Perot received 27.34% of the vote to Clinton's 24.65% (Bush won with 43.36%). Although Perot did not win a state, he received a plurality of votes in some counties.[47][48] His popular vote total is still by far the most ever garnered for a third-party candidate, almost double the previous record set by Wallace in 1968. A detailed analysis of voting demographics revealed that Perot's support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between $15,000 and $49,000 annually, with the bulk of the remainder drawing from the upper-middle class (29% earning more than $50,000 annually).[49] Exit polls also showed that 38% of Perot voters would have otherwise voted for Bush, and 38% would have voted for Clinton.[50] Though there were widespread claims that Perot acted as a "spoiler," post-election analysis suggested that his presence in the race likely did not affect the outcome.[51]