The dustbin of history is littered with things we thought we knew. The Earth was definitely flat until it definitely wasn't. Eventually, the Sun stopped revolving around the Earth. Much later on, the Red Sox managed to break The Curse and, not long after that shock, Pluto wasn't even a planet anymore.
Apparently, nothing is sacred.
At least Americans can be certain that as far as the Electoral College goes, there are red states, there are blue states, and the rest are perpetually toss-ups, like Florida – and that's that. Right? Well, if you're still misty-eyed from having to peel your glow-in-the-dark Pluto decal off the bedroom wall, you may want to stop reading here. Florida is going blue.
It turns out this is far from an isolated incident or evidence of a trend in only one direction. Stepping gingerly through the rubble of the "Blue Wall" that crumbled under Hillary's feet, one realizes that the idea that states are irreversibly entrenched for one party or another is apocryphal. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin voting Republican in 2016 was no more of a betrayal than Indiana tipping for Barack Obama in 2008. States don't belong to parties. They belong to people – people who move, people whose lives are affected by changing economies – and the political leanings of the states where they live will continuously evolve as a result.
"It is foolish to look at the national map as a collection of red and blue states. Over the long march of time, all of them are purple ."
Brandon Finnigan, 12/1/16 National Review
Meanwhile, in the service of these mythical advantages, the Electoral College renders millions of votes meaningless and encourages presidential candidates to ignore large portions of our country based on "electoral math." When this math is out of the picture and candidates actually compete for the affection of all voters, the results may surprise you – did you know that 4 of the 5 most popular governors in America right now are Republicans in states that went to Hillary Clinton in 2016?
The only electoral math that adds up in a democracy is counting every vote.
What happens if we start to count everybody's vote? Don't let anyone tell you they know. Anything is possible.
Watch your back, Mercury.