This Twitter thread is a must read:

[Saviolo]

Someone retweeted this on my timeline today. From Twitter user Ross A. Lincoln (https://twitter.com/Rossalincoln) and I'm just going to merge the whole twitter essay into a big paragraph:

There seems to be a lot of confusion, some genuine, some very dishonest, about what is intended by talking up Hillary's pop vote totals. First, and I only say it so you'll have something to refer to before pedanting all over this: yes we know about the electoral college. while it'd be nice if the E.C. would, just once, live up to the lies ppl tell about why it even exists, we know it won't in this case. so, yes, we're perfectly aware Trump will be president b/c of a choke point baked into the constitution to protect slavers' interests. and yes, we're perfectly aware that you win the presidency by getting more electors than the other person. So please shut up about that. the thing is whenever dems win - even if they win big like in 06 and 08 - the dominant narrative is always " they didn't really win". in 2000 Gore won and GOPs controlled the senate by only 1 vote. But Bush 'won' anyway as was treated (and acted) like he had a mandate. in 2006, Dems got a majority in both houses of congress bigger than the biggest GOPs had in modern history. And it wasn't their biggest. yet even though they'd been repudiated hard, immediately GOPs pushed idea "this proves America is a center-right nation" (actual quote) in 08 dems got even bigger majority & press + major dems + gops pushed the idea that dems, not GOPs, had to bring the country together. Dems won actual mandate but were urged from start not to govern from strength but tentatively. (examples too numerous to list here). context: Dem majorities in 06 and 08 were bigger than GOP's in 94, which was treated like the entire world had changed forever. even today's GOP majorities in congress aren't as big as the smallest most recent Democratic majority. Meanwhile, the great lie told by GOPs is that they're 'real' America and that they're a true majority, not liberals. So when they win, regardless of circumstances, press & even many ostensible liberals fall in line w/demands liberals stop being liberal. That's happening now bigly. Even the LA Weekly published a horrid little illiterate screed about how liberals suck. LA Weekly!

but here's the thing: Hill's campaign seriously erred in ignoring key swing states. But she still is getting a historic pop vote margin pushing 3 million more votes than Trump got. Possibly going to have gotten more votes than Obama got in 2012. by any reasonable standard of judgment, clear majority of voters did not want Trump in office and most of those voters wanted Hillary. Trump literally won only thanks to a technicality. And yet everyone is trying to push this idea that liberal votes don't really count. we're told *we* live in a bubble. But as other ppl have noted, Los Angeles looks a hell of a lot more like America than Sapulpa, OK. before anyone accuses me of being a snooty coastal elite, I am from Sapulpa, OK. if Dems reacted to winning E.C. but not pop vote by saying OK isn't a real place and doesn't count, there'd be riots and impeachment. That's literally what is happening to liberals. But we didn't just win the pop vote b/c of a quirk. We won it BIG. There are more of us. if anything, we're the ignored majority. Not conservatives, who literally cannot win fair and square. that is why we keep bringing up the pop vote. We have to keep hammering the fact that we are NOT outliers. We are not "elites". we have to keep reminding people whose default setting is to surrender that clearly they problem isn't that Dems are too liberal. Not to mention the fact that in most of the swing states, Trump's margin of victory is smaller than # of votes Stein got. calls for Ds to abandon core constituencies and core projects are bad and should be ignored. In summary: we should do more of what we've done not less unless we wanna lose forever. THAT's why we keep bringing up the pop vote. FIN

Addendum: As if to prove my point, this is the kind of BS we have to deal with on the regular: https://twitter.com/politico/status/806321124275617792

So, that's just a quick and dirty cut'n'paste of the whole Twitter essay. To read it in its natural environment, please see the link here: https://twitter.com/Rossalincoln/status/806553976527126528