Readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that I’m a big advocate of storytelling for politicians to appeal to voters, just as I’ve worked with many a speaker to develop the right story for each of them. The New Hampshire primary results represented a resounding affirmation of the power of storytelling – and what happens when you don’t.

Please note that I’m deliberately steering clear of partisan politics here. I’ll do my best to dole out advice equally to all sides and politicians. This blog is about storytelling, the neuroscience of good communications, public speaking, body language, and careers in public speaking – not about politics per se. So spare me the hate mail.

Preliminaries aside, let’s get to the results. And they are fascinating. The two top vote-getters were Donald Trump on the Republican side, with just over 35% of the vote in a split field, and on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, with a whopping 60% of the vote.

What does that mean for storytellers? Both of these candidates have a powerful, clear story to tell voters. Mr. Trump is going to take America back for its downtrodden middle class, away from the stupid politicians, and build a wall to keep the wicked Mexicans out. Senator Sanders is going to take America back for its downtrodden middle class, away from the wicked Wall Street moneymen and bankers. Notice a pattern here? One of the elements of one of the most powerful stories we tell each other, the revenge story, is the scapegoat or wrongdoer. For Mr. Trump, it’s the politicians and Mexicans, and for Senator Sanders, it’s the Wall Street bankers.

The revenge story fits the times admirably. Middle class wages have stagnated for two decades, and at the same time as the super rich have gotten even richer. As the gap widens, our sense of imperilment grows way beyond our actual suffering, because we feel that we’re missing out on something the evildoers have – such as their own islands, helicopters, and private jets – even if our lives are pretty much the same as they have been in practical terms. With the addition of smart phones and fast Internet, movie streaming and the ability to watch the Super Bowl online.

But no matter. We feel like we’re suffering, and indeed, for some, the suffering became real after 2008 and the collapse of a lot of accumulated wealth in the stock market and other financial assets, imperiling carefully planned retirements and the like.

So the revenge stories resonate on both sides. Beyond that, every other candidate is struggling because they represent the establishment, more or less. With the top two candidates demonizing the establishment, no story line that is strong enough to threaten Revenge has emerged.

To be sure, Ted Cruz’s story line about ideological purity has demons aplenty in it, but his story is only ever going to appeal to a minority of Republican voters, so he’s limited by the numerical ceiling he’s bumping up against.