Ever since Jesse Helms became president in 1980, America followed down a path of voting suppression and civil rights restrictions that while not looking blatant, had a major negative effect on American democracy. By the year 2016, the Republican Party had near total-control in almost every state (besides now-swing areas of the states of California and Hawaii, and the northeast), and had won presidential elections with >60% for the past 20 years.
Then, in a surprise, outsider Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, and everything changed. Nominee Donald Trump began to make gaffe after gaffe, irrational policy statements, and everything else. The normally-safe election began to unravel. What was initially a 25-point lead became a 15-point lead became a 5-point lead became too close to call. And on election night, unheralded Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton pulled off a massive electoral upset, winning the electoral college by a mere 593 votes in the state of Virginia.
Hillary Clinton/Someone Else (D): 274 Electoral votes, 49.64%Donald Trump/Scott Brown (R): 264 Electoral votes, 48.09%https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/720312(Ran it on Easy with a difficulty modifier of 1.5 and intentionally tried to lose the election)
