@SamuelCaplan There were still 74,216,154 people who voted for him in 2020. That's more than 7,000,000 fewer votes than Biden (81,268,924 votes for him). Although this 2020 election was the US presidential election with the highest turnout in decades (estimated to be ≈66.2%, an outstanding value, which deserves praise) it still shows that of the total adult voter population (about 234.82 million people) 34.6% voted for Biden, 33.8% didn't vote and 31.6% voted for Trump.
So apparently 31.6% of all eligible voters would have defended him in 2020. The number of people who would defend him now (after the attempted insurrection on Jan 6) is certainly lower. In my opinion this election (as well as the 2016 one) was a near miss. A warning shot for the US. If it doesn't fix its internal problems, democratic backsliding and potential loss of its longstanding role as the foremost superpower in the world might be the consequence.
Why didn't more people vote? For full transparency, the turnout for the 2020 election was phenomenal for US standards. But even in this "fateful election", over a third of eligible voters didn't show up.
People mostly didn't vote because they don't care (somewhat understandably, because of the first-past-the-post voting and gerrymandering the US has naturally turned into what effectively is a two party system, of course many people don't feel represented by either party), but also because the US makes it pretty hard to vote (for some people):
Before 2020 mail-in voting – totally normal in many democracies around the world – was uncommon in/unused by many US states. And throughout 2020 Trump made sure to attempt to corrode the public's trust in mail-in ballots (for his own political gain, since he knew that historically dems were overrepresented in main-in voting).
In person voting always takes place on November 3, a Tuesday (in 2020) and as such a normal work day. And when they say November 3, they mean it. You got one day to vote, that's it (also unlike some other countries, for example – and whether that's a good thing or not – Australia has compulsory voting, but allows citizens early, or pre-poll voting at early voting centres, if they find it difficult to find time on election day).
There are no national holidays to make it easier to vote (like there are in other democracies, e.g. Austria, Israel, South Korea). And the lack of a social security net (that actually deserves its name) means that many people don't want to (or simply can't afford to; nice additional way to systematically disadvantage poor people) miss a day of work. Or take their scarce paid leave just to vote (potentially for somebody they don't feel fully represents them).
And I haven't even begun to mention efforts that border on active voter suppression, like closing down polling stations in densely populated areas, because they are supposedly "not needed", then being "surprised" by long queues at the few remaining polling stations, where people sometimes have to wait for hours on end just to cast their vote.
Something like this is unheard off in (some) other democracies, where voting is as easy and as quick as taking a walk in a park (10 minutes at the most) and the government does everything it can to make it possible to vote for everyone (purportedly they even let you vote while drunk, haha).
Or the fact that the US strips (some of its) criminals of their rights to vote or run for a public office indefinitely (and ironically still counts those disenfranchised prison inmates as inhabitants of the state where the prison is located, even if they would normally live in a different state, thus inflating the prison's state's number of electors in the electoral college). The argument is that by committing a felony they have "forfeited" their rights as a citizen. I personally find the commonness of this practice to be disgraceful. It hinders rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Criminals are made into disenfranchised outcasts, how is that ever going to help keep them from committing more crimes after they are released??? Anyhow.
The US deserves better. And I'm still optimistic it will do better in future.
