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Rigged:听An accusatory adjective for a purportedly stacked-deck process that plays into the populism flourishing across the political spectrum.听

鈥淩igged鈥� may be the dominant word of this election. Donald Trump to refer to what he warns might be the outcome in November, in addition to the earlier GOP primary process, the economic system, and the Justice Department investigation that failed to indict Hillary Clinton.听

Mrs. Clinton has invoked it, too. 鈥淭he economy is rigged in favor of those at top,鈥� she earlier this year. And it was a byword of and about the primaries that eventually gave Clinton the nomination, though Sanders later in favor of another blunt word: 鈥渄umb.鈥澨�

鈥淭he word 鈥榬igged鈥� graces every noun in sight,鈥� MTV News鈥� Jaime Fuller several months ago. 鈥淚t's the 鈥榮alted caramel鈥� of the 2016 presidential primary 鈥� it might have made sense to flavor things with it in the beginning, until you see Salted Caramel Pringles on the shelf and wonder what the word even means anymore.鈥�

The repeated accusation that so many state officials could collude to rig an election, and those who study such processes have emphasized, not only is unthinkable but has dangerous implications.听

鈥淚 do not know if American democracy will survive this bizarre election year, but if it does not make it, I can predict the cause of death,鈥� Michael Smith, a political science professor at Kansas鈥� Emporia State University. 鈥淭he smoking gun will be the growing, highly toxic, self-serving, and baseless belief that whenever one鈥檚 favored candidate, party, or issue loses an election, it must be because 鈥榯he system鈥� was 鈥榬igged鈥� by the winning side.鈥�

How did it get this way? In a word, populism 鈥� the belief among ordinary citizens that an establishment dominated by 鈥渆lites鈥� is controlling things to the citizens鈥� detriment.听

鈥淭his campaign has turned into the Year of the Populist 鈥斕齩r, at least, candidates who want to sound like populists,鈥� the Los Angeles Times鈥� Doyle McManus

Populism has been around for centuries and has taken hold, in different forms, on both the right and left. What distinguishes it these days, experts say, is how politicians such as Trump and Sanders have amplified some of its older traditions 鈥� particularly instilling a sense of 鈥渋t鈥檚 us against them鈥� in followers 鈥� through Twitter, Facebook and other social media. At the same time, those politicians鈥� fiery, no-holds-barred rhetoric has drawn nonstop coverage from click- and viewer-hungry traditional news outlets.

鈥淢edia can no longer be treated as a side issue when it comes to understanding contemporary populism,鈥� wrote Benjamin Moffitt, a research fellow in political science at Sweden鈥檚 University of Stockholm, in his The Global Rise of Populism.

Dr. Moffitt said the media play a role in one of populism鈥檚 distinguishing features 鈥� perpetuating a sense of crisis. He said populists, or those using such rhetoric, achieve this through a series of steps:

• Identifying a failure.
• Elevating that failure to the level of a crisis.
• Framing the debate in a way that pits 鈥渢he people鈥� against those seen as responsible for the crisis.
• Using the media to make their case.
• Demanding 鈥渟imple solutions and strong leadership.鈥�

Saying that an institution or system is rigged is invoking a crisis. It鈥檚 a powerful word that 鈥渃onjures up invisible actors pulling strings behind the scenes,鈥� said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California-Berkeley and author of numerous books on American language.听

鈥淥f course, every system has its built-in biases, so that losers may feel that the system is rigged against them,鈥� Nunberg said. 鈥淏ut the claims usually sound more plausible when the losers are the little guys 鈥� retail investors, third-party candidates 鈥� than powerful players like insurance companies or the candidates of major parties. Coming from them, 鈥榬igged鈥� sounds like an admission of incompetence.鈥澨�

Chuck McCutcheon writes his 鈥淪peaking Politics鈥� blog exclusively for Politics Voices.

Interested in decoding what candidates are saying? Chuck McCutcheon and David Mark鈥檚 latest book, 鈥淒oubletalk: The Language, Code, and Jargon of a Presidential Election,鈥� is