When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

by John Ganz

Despair over the state of government could figure as apathy or anger: many voters simply dropped out of the electorate altogether. Others began to mobilize and vent their spleen at their representatives and even at the representative system as a whole. This divide had a class component: while the worst off usually just gave up on politics, it was the middling sort that got mad.

On Election Day, November 16, 1991, Black voters turned out at a rate of 78 percent. Edwards won the New Orleans area handily, beating Duke in Jefferson Parish with 59 percent of the vote; even Duke’s Metairie district went for Edwards, with 56 percent. The final outcome was a total blowout: Edwards 61, Duke 39.