The Numbers Don’t Add Up to Total Hate

You’ll never believe this, because I kinda hide it from the world, but I’m still a bit of a math-geek at heart. Back in the day, I was good at math. I liked math. It’s because numbers are real. Numbers don’t lie. You can’t fake numbers. No. We’re not gonna talk “jobs reports” … even though we could … but am gonna use numbers and get a little political. 

I want to use numbers to give myself hope. Hope that, while we think “everyone” thinks this, or “nobody” is doing that . . . I want to prove “most people” don’t really care.

Here’s a little life lesson … don’t use words like “everyone”, “noone”, “nobody”, “everybody”, “most people”, 

Again, I’ll give you my theory and then set out to prove it. My theory is  . . .

“While we think everyone is engaged in politics and the U.S. is divided and on the brink of true civil war. I theorize that the majority of people don’t care and just want to live their lives.”

Let’s start with numbers…

What is the U.S. Population:  340,000,000

• Note:  I used Google and ChatGPT and asked many ways and consulted 3 websites and saw numbers as high as 347M … so I picked the lowest number for fairness

What % of the U.S. Population is Age 18+:  

• 21% (again, used many sources and thought this was a fair #)
• 268,000,000 people in the U.S. aged 18 and over (and can vote)

So, now, let’s get Political… 

How Many People Voted in the 2024 Election and How Did They Vote?

• 77,303,568 voted Republican
• 75,019,230 voted Democrat
• 2,878,359 voted Other
• 155,201,157  TOTAL

This shows me of the 268,000,000 adults that can vote in the U.S., only 155,201,157 actually voted. 

Which means 112,000,000 adults that could vote … didn’t. Just don’t care enough to vote. That’s 41% to you and me.  Add in the under-18 crowd, and you have 184,000,000 people that didn’t vote (54%).

Next, let’s break it down even further and figure out, of the 155-Million that voted, how many can we comfortably say are “they” …collectively.

It’s also my theory that 155-Million vote because it’s the right thing to do, but the majority of people who care enough to vote do so as the bare minimum of their civic duty. Let’s look at TV news viewers…

This is from Drudge’s front page on 10/3.

NEWS SHOW	VIEWERS
CBS 60 MINS	10,025,000
ABC MUIR	7,244,000
NBC LLAMAS	5,576,000
ABC KIMMEL	4,890,000
CBS EVENING NEWS	3,797,000
FOX THE FIVE	3,700,000
FOX WATTERS	3,336,000
FOX GUTFELD	2,940,000
FOX HANNITY	2,891,000
FOX BAIER	2,862,000
ABC 20/20	2,752,000
FOX INGRAHAM	2,719,000
CBS COLBERT	2,655,000
ABC GMA	2,594,000
CBS FACE NATION	2,573,000
NBC TODAY	2,444,000
ABC THE VIEW	2,405,000
MSNBC MADDOW	1,842,000
FOX LAURA TRUMP	1,077,000
	68,322,000

This isn’t totally inclusive, but it’s good enough. Take the entire group of people that “watch news”, which I’ll define as people that pay attention and care enough to spend their valuable time watching news . . . and it’s only 68-Million people watching news. Which means, of the 155-Million people that voted, only 43% watch news and pay attention.

Now . . . check out some color coding because I was inerested in what “side” the viewers are on AND I was pretty generous in giving some news programs total-blue (even tho I personally feel some of the big hitters are pretty fair in “reporting” and not offering an opinion or spin. Go ahead. Call me naive.).

Those numbers surprise me. It tells me of all-news-watching people, 71% are “left”? I’ll arbitrarily add 10-Million to the “right/red” news programs just to try and balance it out a bit, but the #s still make my point . . . the majority of people who vote have better things to do with their time than watch news on TV. This also doesn’t factor in duplication of viewing (which I can’t think of how to determine), but my hunch is if a person is “left” or “right”, chances are that person doesn’t watch one show on the list and nothing else. Meaning … of the 48-Million “left/blue” viewers, and the 29-Million “right/red” viewers, and factoring in 15% overlap or duplication, that takes it down to 58-Million people who spend time watching news.

68,322,000 TOTAL VIEWERS x 15% OVERLAP (WATCH MORE THAN ONE SHOW) = 58-MILLION

And then I asked ChatGPT and Gemini and I Googled some other things . . .

Q:  What percentage of the population donates to political parties, candidates, or PACs?

A: 15% of 268,000,000 18+ = approx. 40-Million people

Q:  What percentage of the population attends political rallies?

A: 13-15% of 268,000,000 18+ = approx. 34-Million to 40-Million people

Common sense tells me the people who donate to political parties or causes and/or attend political rallies are largely the same people and when you put them on their “sides”, I’ll bet the donors and attendees are heavy news-viewers … all of it is proving what I feel and what I originally theorized . . . 

“While we think everyone is engaged in politics and the U.S. is divided and on the brink of true civil war. I theorize that the majority of people don’t care and just want to live their lives.”

Here’s the numbers (and I’m including the Under-18 crowd) . . . 

• 184,000,000 people don’t vote
• 282,000,000 people don’t watch news
• 300,000,000 people never attended a political rally
• 300,000,000 people never donated to a political candidate or cause

Is this me saying, “you’re right not to care” or “it’s OK if you check out”?  Yes and no. What I’m proving is that if you feel like “everyone” cares and you feel guilty about wanting to work on your hobbies, read a trashy novel, watch sports, watch Hallmark movies and if you feel like not everything is political (like what movies we watch or what stores we shop at) . . . if you feel guilty you don’t take things more seriously … you’re not alone.

Now, you ask, what about all the people online … X(Twitter), Facebook, Reddit, chat rooms, and the dark-wevb and 4-chan and super secret, super niche Internet places?  Honestly … even if you put that number at 10-Million or 20-Million, it doesn’t ruin everything I’m theorizing.

The math shows the truth … the majority of people aren’t worked up about “everything” “all the time.”  When you’re watching college football and NFL football and MLB playoffs this weekend and you see millions of people jammed into stadiums, think of this way … 

• 100,000 people in a stadium
  • half of them don’t vote
  • 29,000 of them watch TV news
  • …which means 71,000 of them don’t want to talk politics, don’t want to argue, don’t want to take their hard-earned money and give it to politicians and they have better things to do with their time than rage-watch news.

Bottom line … deep breath. I’m not saying don’t pay attention and don’t have an opinion but if you feel like you don’t need to post your opinions, argue your opinions, and get all worked up … well … most people are just like you.