Voters express their disgust with candidates

ORLANDO, Fla. — The sign on Donn Carr’s lawn in College Park could sum up the feelings of a lot of voters this election year. “Everybody Sucks 2016: The U.S. is Doomed!”

“I don’t think in my lifetime I’ve seen anything like this,” said Carr, 68, an international consultant in the retail industry. “I’ve been voting in every election since I was 18 — local, state, national. I’ve voted for both sides. But what I find embarrassing is that in this great nation, the best two people we could find to represent us are these two? It’s enough to make you scratch your head.”

Favorability ratings for Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are at historically low levels, according to the latest Gallup poll, which largely mirrors many other recent surveys.

Clinton would be the least-liked presidential candidate ever, with only 40 percent favorability overall — if it weren’t for Trump, who has the lowest likability ever at 33 percent, the poll found.

“It is very unusual to have a leading candidate have such high negatives, much less both parties,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

The Gallup poll was taken mostly after Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination on May 5, meaning that his low favorability comes even after many Republicans have started to come back into the fold and support him.

At the same time, Clinton is still fighting U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination and struggling to gain support from his backers.

There’s also one major difference in the Gallup numbers. Trump doesn’t reach 50 percent favorability among any segment of the population, even among white men, white non-college graduates and men over 50 years old.

Despite her overall unpopularity, Clinton has positive favorability among several groups, including African-Americans, Hispanics and nonwhite women.

“You can chalk it up to Hillary being in the public eye for 25 years or more,” Brown said. “She’s had to keep up a public image for all that time. … Being that present in the news, people will like and dislike you over time, and Hillary Clinton seems to inspire a significant amount of people to view her unfavorably.”

Trump, meanwhile, “is different,” Brown said. “He’s essentially brand new to the political scene. … (There’s) a saying, ‘You never have a second chance to make a first impression,’ and for Mr. Trump, that first impression has not been that good.”

Carr’s sign — and his matching T-shirt — come from an online seller, Everybody Sucks 2016, that proudly states on its website: “If you can’t stand behind any candidate, don’t just keep your mouth shut and shake your head, softly weeping inside. … Step up and voice your opinion as unpolitical.”

Other popular curmudgeonly stickers and posters available at other sites include “Nobody 2016,” “Giant Meteor 2016: Just End It Already” and “Obama 2016: Just to Annoy You.”

When Carr wears his T-shirt, “I get stopped wherever I go. Young, old, black, white, Asian, Democrat, Republican, libertarian, gay, straight — everybody says, ‘I want that shirt!’ It sums up the whole damn race.”

But despite everything, Carr, who calls himself an independent, says he will step into the voting booth in November because the rest of the races are important. As for who gets his vote for president, he’ll make the decision on Election Day.

“I’m a three-tour Vietnam veteran; I cannot not vote, even though both parties suck,” Carr said. “Either way you go, you lose. It’s just how badly.”

Who would he prefer for president?

“Condoleezza Rice,” he said. “She hits all the right things. … But she’s too smart for that.”