You Can’t Say What If, Without Realizing The Opposition Changes Also
Democrats can punish themselves by saying What If we Realized Wisconsin was in play, and had put forces there? What if the polls were better? What if we knew there were hidden voters anxious to vote for Trump?
Since the opposition would know the same thing, they would respond to take advantage of it, and also respond when the Democrats reacted.
As an example, Clinton is projected to win the popular vote by about 2 million votes, or about 2%. If we switched to a popular vote system, would Clinton have won? Don’t count on it. Potential voters in dark blue or red states might not have shown up or even voted for their party’s candidate (about 10%) in this election, since they knew their vote wasn’t needed, since all of their state’s electoral votes would go to the leading candidate. However, if the voting system for President changed to a popular vote, all of those lazy or conflicted voters would turn out for their party or favorite candidates. The result is not predictable from voting in the current electoral college system.
If the polls got more accurate, or had a firmer estimate of the systematic errors, the candidates rallies, workers, and ads would be distributed in response to that, for both parties. Again, not a predicable result from what happened in this election.
This is an example of adaptive intellectual battles and escalation that occurs in all competitions.
