Rachel Maddow gets it wrong.
On election night, she gave us the suggestion
“Well, it is what it is. People go into this eyes wide open,” the MSNBC host said during the network’s coverage on election night. “If you vote for somebody who can’t win for president, it means that you don’t care who wins for president.”
In West Virginia, Clinton received 26.5% of the vote. It was absolutely impossible for Clinton to carry West Virginia, so the 187,457 votes for her West Virginia electors were votes for electors who could not possibly win. If we were to believe Maddow, those 187,457 loyal Democrats voted for someone who couldn’t win, so they didn’t care who wins for President. Maddow is wrong. Those voters cared very much who won.
Ditto in Massachusetts. Donald Trump had absolutely no possibility of carrying Massachusetts, but he received hundreds of thousands of votes here. Most readers here will agree that Massachusetts Trump voters were wrong, but the notion that Massachusetts Trump voters did not care who was elected President is just plain silly. Like their fellows, the Clinton voters of West Virginia, those voters showed up and cast their votes, even though they knew their votes were cast in vain, because they cared very much who would win.
Maddow’s position is just plain wrong. It is wrong because your vote counts twice. It counts once for your candidate, and once for her party and its position. Your vote for a candidate may not prevail, but you are still sending a message to your fellow Americans that you support your party and its positions.