Landslide Election: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

* Seen in many old Communist or generally authoritarian regimes which still have elections.

* One of the most famous (and most [[Up to Eleven|over-the-top]]) ''recent'' examples was the 2002 Presidential referendum in Iraq, which boasted ''100%'' voter turnout, and in which [[Blatant Lies|every single voter marked "Yes"]] to allowing [[Saddam Hussein]] to continue as Iraq's [[Just the First Citizen|leader]] for 7 more years.

** The re-elections for [[Franklin D Roosevelt]] in 1936, 1940, and 1944 were all political landslides because, let's face it, Roosevelt was and still is very popular. In 1936, the Great Depression was still in full swing and FDR ran on a "we got you Social Security, now let me do the rest" campaign, and simply ''crushed'' Alf Landon, who only managed to win Maine and Vermont (notably, a magazine named ''The Literary Digest'' actually [[wikipedia:Literary Digest#Presidential poll|predicted]] a ''Landon'' landslide after conducting a straw poll; it ceased publication shortly after the election). In 1940, he rode into a third term after fixing the economy. And in 1944, there was the slight matter of a [[World War II|little war]] going on; indeed, many scholars believe that Thomas Dewey's 1944 campaign was better than his 1948 campaign (see below), but his major problem was running against Roosevelt.

** [[Richard Nixon]]'s 1972 re-election was primarily because pro-[[Vietnam War]] sentiment was still rife and his election team engaging in some of the dirtiest politics known to man. It's suggested that Nixon was an idiot (or, more accurately, paranoid, see [[Richard Nixon|his page more info]]) for breaking into the Watergate because he was so popular [[Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat|he could've won this election without the dirty tricks]].

** Across the pond from the United States, the United Kingdom's general election in 1931 is a good example of this. Shortly before the election, the former Labour Prime Minister Ramsay [[Mac Donald]] had formed a National Government, which was composed of the Conservative Party, the vast majority of the Liberal Party and a handful of rogue but largely popular Labour [[M Ps]]. It was created with the goal of leading the UK through the Great Depression, and when the country went to the polls in 1931, its candidates won 556 of 615 seats in the Commons and an overall majority of 497. The Conservative Party alone won 473 seats (a majority of 331), and ''55% of the vote'' - the only time a single party has won more than half the popular vote under universal suffrage. Labour, the only real party of opposition, suffered the worst election defeat for a major party in history too, ''losing over 80% (225) of the seats it held at dissolution''. Incredibly, only two years earlier, the Conservative leader and former Prime Minister (now ''de facto'' Deputy, or even arguably Co-, PM under Macdonald), Stanley Baldwin, had lead his party into an election that saw more than a third of his parliamentary party wiped out. Four years later it was re-elected, this time with Baldwin becoming PM, and won the second largest majority in history despite losing 100 seats. It wasn't until 1945, when the National Government had disintegrated to the point where it was almost exclusively made up of the by-then-unpopular Conservative Party, that it lost power.

** "Hurricane" [[wikipedia:Hazel McCallion|Hazel McCallion]], mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, squeaked into office in 1978 by narrowly defeating Ron Searle, and has stayed there ever since. (As of 2010, she is 89 years old!) She is so popular that for the last few elections she hasn't even bothered campaigning, instead taking a vacation during that time; she is generally elected with 80-90% of the vote. To date no real competitor has ever come up.

** As pointed out above, Jospin flunked out in the first round of presidential elections in 2002 because too many of his supporters split and voted for other left-wing parties instead of supporting him.

 

** Again from an American Presidential election, President [[Ronald Reagan]] absolutely ''crushed'' Walter Mondale in 1984. President Reagan probably would have won no matter what, but Mondale's nasal speaking voice, hesitant phrasing, and inability to "spin" his message, particularly when contrasted with the ultra-smooth skills of "The Great Communicator", turned an ordinary defeat into a [[Landslide Election]].

*** Also not helping Mondale was the fact he was [[Jimmy Carter]]'s Vice President considering the conditions that led to Reagan's beatdown of Carter in 1980.

*** Or that Mondale often got eclipsed by his much more popular VP pick, Geraldine Ferraro, ''in his own campaign materials''. Several women's groups famously wore buttons reading '''''Ferraro and What's His Name.'''''

** Same with Canada in 1984, where John Turner's really old age, lack of charisma and archaic language (he called unemployment relief programs "make-work programs", not helping his case with young voters) proved no match for Mulroney.

** The USA, 1948. Incumbent [[Harry S Truman]] is very low in the polls, there's been a three-way split in the Democratic party and his loss appears unstoppable. Problem was, Republican candidate Thomas Dewey was advised to not do anything that could screw up his candidacy. He wound up becoming infamous for platitude-filled speeches that didn't even say what would happen if he'd be president <ref>one newspaper summarised his entire campaign as: "Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead."</ref>. On the other hand, Truman decided eh, what the hell, might as well unleash a brutal campaign mocking Dewey and the Republicans at every turn and campaigning all across the country. Nobody thinks he has a chance. Result? Truman wins (and [[Useful Notes/American Football|proves that the]] [[wikipedia:Prevent defense|prevent defense]] is a fail in politics, at least) while [[wikipedia:Dewey Defeats Truman|the Chicago Tribune gets to eat their words]] and [[Dewey Defeats Truman|name a trope]] simultaneously.

** The [[wikipedia:Ontario general election, 2003|2003 Ontario election]] wound up being this after the Conservatives issued a press statement calling Liberal leader Dalton [[Mc Guinty]] an [[Memetic Mutation|"evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet"]]. It made them look nuts, and things pretty much snowballed from there.

 

 

Because this deals with the results of elections, '''expect spoilers'''. Also, since these are so much more common in [[Real Life]] than in fiction, only truly ''exceptional'' real-life examples should be listed- it will vary depending on the electoral system in question, but ideally, shoot for a threshold of victory with ''at least'' 70% of the vote.

 

{{examples}}

 

* The 2002 Presidential Election on ''[[The West Wing]]'' was originally predicted to be close, but instead turned into a [[Landslide Election]] after President Bartlet ''[[Curb Stomp Battle|eviscerated]]'' Governor Richie in the debate.

** The usual aftermath is averted, however: while Bartlet is a compellingly charismatic leader who wins all his personal elections comfortably, his party never manages to profit from it, and he has to govern with a hostile congress throughout his term of office. Disappointed party members accusingly call him "The lonely landslide". Of course, if the Republicans didn't have power throughout the series, it would have undermined their status as the opposition, since audiences tend to root for the underdog.

** The episode "E Pluribus Wiggum" also saw [[The Ditz|Ralph Wiggum]] win the first Presidential Primary in the United States by a massive landslide. The voters, fed up and angry, deliberately chose to vote for the biggest moron they could find.

** The episode where a new class president would be elected was this. Only because two people in the entire class voted, resulting in "one for Martin, two for Martin!"

* The "Election Night Special" sketch on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' featured a possible example; Silly candidate "Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel" defeated Sensible Candidate Alan Jones, 58% to 42%. Both men thoroughly crushed the "Slightly Silly" independent, Kevin Phillips-Bong, who received ''zero'' votes.

* An episode of ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' had Ed Bighead winning the election with hundred of thousands of votes and only two votes for Rocko when campaigning for the city dog catcher.

* In the film version of ''[[The Last Hurrah]]'', [[Loveable Rogue|Frank Skeffington]] expects to win re-election handily, and we are given little reason at first to suppose that he won't win by a landslide. In the end, the vote ''is'' a landslide victory- for Skeffington's opponent, [[Brainless Beauty|Kevin McCluskey]]. The change in mood at Skeffington's headquarters as the returns come in is a highlight of the film.

* An episode of ''[[Blinky Bill]]'' featured an election for club president that Danny Dingo won by 47 votes to 2, even though there were only six club members.

* An episode of ''[[Barney Miller]]'' took place on election day. Inspector Luger is a strong proponent of a good friend of his who is running for office, even though the only thing that anybody else can remember about the candidate is that he was accused of being involved with bribery and corruption in the sanitation department (the Inspector's awkward attempts to defend the candidate on the grounds that "[[Implausible Deniability|they couldn't prove any of that]]" only seem to confirm the truth of the accusations). Not surprisingly, the candidate loses by a margin of more than 5 to 1.