There've been a fair number of landslide presidential elections in U.S. history: Two of the biggest have happened in my voting lifetime and—fair disclosure—I campaigned for and voted for both of the losers.
In 1972, George McGovern carried only one state (Massachusetts) and still wound up with 37.5% of the popular vote. He was defeated by Richard Nixon.
In 1984, running against Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale won one state (Minnesota) plus the District of Columbia while amassing 40.9% of the popular vote.
Another candidate I supported, Michael Dukakis, in 1988 got 45.6% of the popular vote while carrying 10 states plus D.C.
Currently there are 11 deep red states on Nate Silver's forecast map, and eight or nine pink ones, suggesting (yeah, I know the math is fuzzy here but I'm going with it anyway) Trump is likely to wind up with at least 40% of the vote next month, probably the most frightening scary clown story of the season.
Whatever the outcome of this dismal election, I'm sticking a fork in it. I don't like either candidate and I'll no doubt vote for some third party or other, just for the exercise of walking to the high school and back. Everybody has a right to his or her own opinion; everybody has a right to vote; and everybody ought to.
And that's the end, hopefully, of that.
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