What do you call a contest in which everyone loses?

Election 2016

Metaphorically speaking, a contest in which no one wins is a “tie”, “draw”, “dead heat”, “wash”, “standoff”, “Mexican standoff”. However, a contest in which everyone loses is a different matter.

Once upon a time, a contest in which everyone loses was known as a “train wreck”. Sadly, few alive today remember that metaphor unless they're really old or are model railroad hobbyists. For most, a train wreck is just another day of operations at Amtrac.

Train wrecks were spectacular. Carney men even staged train wrecks as public entertainment. Two engineers set their beasts in motion and jumped clear. The crowd held its breath in anticipation as the two locomotives gathered way and then unleashed a roar of appreciation at witnessing their mutual destruction. There seems to have been something cathartic at witnessing a staged “accident”, an opportunity to see an event recreated in which many had died. It was a precursor to “rubber necking” motorists passing an accident scene on the highway.

Sadly, we are not mere witnesses to this year's train wreck. We are passengers and yet we all have had a hand on the throttle. We the People selected the candidates and now stand aside helplessly as one of them becomes the next President.

No matter who enters the White House, neither will win. They won't have the support of their political party or Congress. They won't have the support of a majority of the constituency. They will only have an empty title. And what will We the People win? We are fighting among ourselves as though either of these candidates actually represent US. Neither is Right nor Left, Conservative nor Liberal, Progressive nor Constitutionalist. 

No rational person expects either to be a good leader or even a satisfactory leader. At a time when the tempest is upon the nation, we will be a ship without a rudder. If we are to survive, We the People will have to step up and save ourselves. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, is it?