Hillary Clinton Lost & It’s Not James Comey’s Fault

Two weeks ago, Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the race for the White House. And while I’ve seen several insightful articles from columnists far to my left, the vast majority of pundits and journalists that were rooting for Hillary are blaming her devastating loss on everyone but her.

Hillary herself is blaming FBI director James Comey. Some are blaming internalized misogyny. Others are blaming racism. Others are blaming celebrities for not getting political enough. Others are blaming Trevor Noah for sucking at the Today Show, and many are blaming “fake news.”

I have some real news for all of them: Hillary Clinton lost for two reasons – because she’s Hillary Clinton, and because she’s a Democrat. I know as liberals, there’s a temptation to blame everyone else for your problems, but hear me out. She didn’t lose because America hates women, she didn’t lose because America hates people of color and she didn’t lose because America hates the LGBTQ community. She lost because Americans are tired of being accused of bigotry every time a liberal disagrees with them. They’re tired of being told what they’re allowed to think, what they’re allowed to say, what they’re allowed to wear. They’re tired of standing before a jury of out of touch celebrities, professors and students to be lectured on what awful people they are. They’re tired of the cycle of outrage, the culture of offense, and the sisterhood of the traveling victimhood.

Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party chose a failing strategy. The Democrats thought so little of the American people that they could push a criminal to the White House by name-calling us to the polls. While Hillary and her party insisted that Donald Trump was a divisive bully, they told us that Hillary Clinton was the best we could do. The same Hillary Clinton that claimed to be an enemy of Wall St despite being funded by them. The same Hillary Clinton that aggressively silenced and intimidated her husband’s alleged rape and sexual assault victims while telling voters that every victim deserved to be believed. The same Hillary Clinton that accused a 12 year old rape victim of pursuing older men and laughing about getting him off even though she knew he was guilty while telling us that she’s a champion of women and children. The same Hillary Clinton that said she didn’t know that “C” marked confidential emails while bragging to us of her decades of experience. The same Hillary Clinton that had her staff destroy devices with hammers that called herself the most transparent public official of our era.

But she wasn’t the problem, and neither were her policies. We were. We were the ignorant, poorly educated, hateful, backwards deplorables that needed to be fixed, not their candidate. And after losing, instead of reflecting, analyzing and engaging what did they do? Continue their silencing, their insults, and their alienation.

I couldn’t tell you how many friends and followers I’ve lost on social media over this election because I don’t care. What I can tell the left is that if their default response to difference of opinion continues to be “You’re stupid. You hate the marginalized. *Unfriend/Unfollow*” they will never win another election in this country again, and frankly, I won’t be mad about it.