She’s the ocean.

My kids were sad when Hillary lost.  They wanted a girl president, because “because why can’t we have a girl president”.

I want a woman president too, someday, and hopefully soon.  But “because” is not a reason to vote for someone.  It is a child’s reason to vote for someone.   “Because my kids are sad the next day” is not a reason to vote for someone.  “Because elderly women wanted to live to see a female president” is not a reason to vote for someone.  “Because I want to check off an item on my bucket list” is not a reason to vote for someone.

Hillary really didn’t give me any reason TO vote for her.  Gary Johnson did, and so I voted for him.  I expect that’s how most people felt.  They considered the options, and selected the alternative that feels right to them.  Some people voted for Jill Stein, some people voted for Donald Trump, some people voted for nobody and left the slot blank.  Some did a write in vote for Harambe.  A lot of other people just stayed home.   This is not the voter’s fault.  Hillary did not connect – not with me, and not with many others.  The only thing she had to tell me was the names of the celebrities that were voting for her.

She also gave me a pretty large and unignorable number of reasons NOT to vote for her. Starting with the fact that she’s a political operative who has been in the government for decades.   During this time, she’s done some questionable stuff that any rational person might have a problem with.  She also hasn’t done some important things that any rational person might have a problem with her not doing.  This idea that she’s this innocent underdog fighting against the system…I’m sorry, it’s just not true.  She was the First Lady, a senator, and the Secretary of State.  She’s the system.  She is the ocean.

Hillary Clinton has had every opportunity to prove herself to me for 25 years – her voting record, her honesty, her successes and her failures…and when it came down to it, I couldn’t close the deal.  I couldn’t make myself vote for her.  Not even to defeat a pretty yucky person. That’s how strongly I felt.  She does not represent my viewpoints and I don’t trust her at all.   That’s on her, not me.

Too many people are trying to make this election about pantsuits and haircuts and sexism.  None of that was true for me.  I thought Hillary looked like a million bucks (and if Hillary’s hair was an issue, have you seen Donald’s) and I’m a woman.  I would love to have a female president.  But I don’t like where the country is headed and she has to be at least somewhat accountable for that.   I have serious concerns about her record, her honesty, the behavior of her campaign and the agenda of her supporters.  I feel she’s really power hungry and all this is some longtime plan that she and Bill hatched ages ago, that she cares nothing about any of us and just wanted the office for her own self-aggrandizement.   Now maybe that’s true for all presidential candidates…but it doesn’t endear someone to me, that’s for sure.  This is legit, guys, that’s what people are trying to explain to you.  I had very legitimate concerns about Hillary Clinton.   Invoking Beyonce and Jay Z’s names are not enough to answer them.   Again, that is on her.

Was I supposed to ignore all those tummy rumblings I was having…the fact that she gave me no tangible reason to vote for her, myriad reasons to vote against her, her ambition, her record, that it would be 4 more years of the same economic policies that aren’t working for me and my family, the secret speeches she didn’t want anyone to hear, the dubious behavior of her campaign and her supporters, her fake Southern accent that came and went with the wind…I would be the worst person ever if I ignored all that stuff just because I wanted to see a female president within my lifetime.  I would be the worst person ever if I ignored that stuff because celebrities told me to or because I was embarrassed when people called me names.  That WOULD make me a uniformed voter that made a bad choice on a whim.  That would make me, as Amy Schumer recently called those who did not support Clinton, weak.  I really would be a weak person if I voted for a candidate that I did not believe in, because of my personal desires or social pressures.

People voted for the person that they thought was gonna do the best job, or they voted for nobody because they really hated both candidates and didn’t connect with a 3rd party, or Harambe.  That’s what cost Hillary the election. She was running against probably the most unlikable candidate, if not person, ever, and she dropped the ball (and not singlehandedly, either, because the media was entirely complicit in this).  Hillary and her campaign and her supporters failed to connect with a significant chunk of people – not only Trump voters, but 3rd party voters, those who refused to vote at all for president or wrote someone else in, and those who stayed home.  I think that Democrats have some very hard questions to ask themselves.  As does the media.

Or, they could blame the voters instead.