No. of Recommendations: 8
"Agree with the theme of your post, but let me point out that in the presence of the Electoral College together with my residence in a reliably blue state, my vote for any Federal official in any foreseeable national general election already doesn't matter. (I'll vote anyway, of course. Haven't missed one yet)"
I used to think like this and I still would think like it in normal times. However.......
Yes, it is the Electoral College that matters, not the national popular vote, so those living in a reliably blue or red state, their presidential vote doesn't really make a difference in the election. That is in normal times. Unfortunately, currently our whole system of voting is under attack by one party. They are trying to delegitimize the vote through either disenfranchising certain voters or through attacking the integrity of the voting process.
With the integrity of the vote under attack, the perception of the vote is important as well.
I think it is important that the winner in this next presidential election put up overwhelming numbers nationally just to help the perception that whoever wins it was the choice of the nation.
I think that is what helped a lot in 2020. Biden crushed Trump so badly in the national vote that it was much harder for people to accept Trump's claims that the election was stolen. The will of the people clearly prevailed.
It should also be noted that right now, neither candidate is popular. This means that there are a lot of voters who do not like either candidate and will probably feel very apathetic about voting. They are probably not going to jump through hoops and go out of their way to vote. I bet turnout for 2024 is way down from 2020. What this means is that some down ballot races might be more competitive than normal even in reliably colored states. So your vote in those races might matter more.
