Leid Stories—The Results Are In. We Lose, No Matter Who Wins—11.08.16

It’s The Big Day. The duopoly’s big day. The Republican and Democratic parties, after all, do dominate the orchestrated contests for the White House, the U.S. Congress, 44 state legislatures; 12 governorships, seven big-city mayoralties, and a slew of important local offices. 

The presidential race, being a national campaign and the biggest political prize of all, naturally gets the most attention. This year, the duopoly’s standard bearers got lots and lots of attention, though mostly unfavorable, mirroring voters’ distaste for both candidates. “Outsider” business tycoon Donald Trump, a new-money Republican, is seen as intellectually shallow, socially crude, politically untested, an all-category phobe, and very likely to go all-out fascist if elected. Hillary Clinton is seen as an inveterate liar, dishonest to the core, co-founder (with husband Bill) of the retooled and upgraded Democratic Party patronage and corruption mill and shadow government, queen of pay-to-play, and the Houdini of a never-ending list of criminal probes.

In the mad scramble toward today, both candidates ramped up their campaigns to fever pitch, selling their heraldic big-picture stories and astutely avoiding small-picture details about them the public already knows. Most will buy what they’ve been selling. 

Leid Stories plumbs the depths of listeners’ attitudes and feelings about Election Day 2016, the electoral choice they have (or have not) made, and where they think things will go from here.