The 2020 election translated into politics what were increasingly stark divides in American society along economic, social, regional, and cultural lines.40 In the election of 2000, George W. Bush had won 2,417 counties that generated 45 percent of the U.S. GDP, while Al Gore won 666 mainly urban counties that generated 55 percent of the national output.41 By 2020 the split had become far more lopsided. Biden won only 509 counties, but they were home to 60 percent of America’s population and generated 71 percent of national output. Trump was left with the rest.
