Young Americans are so dissatisfied with their choices in this presidential election that nearly one in four told an opinion poll they would rather have a giant meteor destroy the Earth than see Donald Trump¹ or Hillary Clinton in the White House. 

 

美国年轻人对本次总统大选中的选择非常不满意，以至于民调中有近1/4的人表示他们宁愿让一颗巨大的流星毁灭地球，也不愿意看到唐纳德·特朗普或者希拉里·克林顿入主白宫。

 

The tongue-in-cheek question was intended to gauge² young Americans' level of unhappiness about their choices in the Nov. 8 election, said Joshua Dyck, co-director of UMass Lowell's Center for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll alongside Odyssey³ Millennials. 

 

The choice alluded⁴ to the Twitter hashtag "#GiantMeteor2016," a reference to an imaginary presidential candidate used to express frustration⁵ about this year's election choices. 

 

Some 53 percent of the 1,247 people aged⁶ 18 to 35 said they would prefer to see a meteor destroy the world than have Republican New York real estate developer Trump in the Oval Office, with some 34 percent preferring planetary annihilation to seeing the Democratic former Secretary of State win. 

 

Some 39 percent said they would prefer that US President Barack Obama declare himself president for life than hand over power to Clinton or Trump, with 26 percent saying the nation would do better to select its next leader in a random⁷ lottery⁸. 

 

Some 23 percent, nearly one in four, preferred the giant meteor outcome to either Trump or Clinton. 

 

"Obviously we don't think that they're serious," Dyck said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "The fact that one in four of our young people pick 'Giant Meteor' tells you something about the political disaffection that is being shown by American youth."

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