There's a lot of finger pointing going around buttressed by a lot of foul language. Many want people to explain themselves and I whole heartedly agree that that needs to be done. We all need to listen to what the other has to say and what they're feeling right now. So, let’s start talking. Hi, I'm Amanda, I'm a millennial, I'm an independent, so I'm not allowed to vote in my state's primaries, and I voted for Clinton over Trump. Bernie made a lot of promises in his campaign. Set a lot of lofty goals that I hope we reach. But, he quit on us, and what he preached, when he didn't accept the Vice-presidency. A Clinton-Sanders ticket would’ve won by a landslide. Heartbreaking, yes, but not a bad situation. All I had to do was remember my high school government class: The president doesn’t make the laws, congress does. The president can only sign things into law or veto them. So, if we had Sanders and Warren in the senate making the laws we’d then have a democratic president to sign them into law in the form of Clinton.
Clinton's main thing is children and their welfare and education. Always has been always will be. Do you honestly think she'd stop any kind of legislation to help students at any level of education? When education is the key ingredient to success. Do you truly believe that Clinton would have allowed any kind of legislation to pass that endangered clean water, clean air, health food source practices, when kids need those things to thrive? Do you believe that she would’ve overturned universal health care when everyone needs it?
And in all honestly I saw a lot of myself in her. More than I saw in Sanders. The establishment is conservative, white, male, and rich. They have set the rules you must follow to succeed: if you’re a man be the biggest bastard of a bully you can, screw everyone you can for your own gain, and crush anyone who stands up to you. If you’re a woman shut up and obey whatever command you’re given, and you don’t get any kind of compensation or recognition for the work you do. Clinton broke all those rules and played by all those rules at the same time. From what I’ve read about her and heard on PBS she has a good soul and truly wants things to change. I can’t imagine what turmoil she went through when making some of the decisions she had to make. Did she always make the right ones? No. But, neither has anyone else. In her I saw someone, like me, who has been told “You can’t do that job you’re a girl.” “You can’t be smart you’re a girl.” “You’re a girl, just be stupid.” And “Shut up you stupid, B****!” And was determined to defy all of it. And I saw my Mom. Someone who loves me and wants to help me even if she doesn’t always go about it the right way. And I saw my Grandma and the first generation on women who were born with the right to vote and who have fought for the rights too many young women now take for granted. It seems obvious to me that Clinton was playing by the establishment’s rules to get into a position to change them. And I truly believe she’d do it and will still work towards those ends.
In Trump, I saw the worst aspects of this country and the base, hollow, depravity of the failings of our culture. I saw the establishment. White. Conservative. Rich. Male. Corrupt. I saw the back-stabbing business practices of the banks and Wall Street. I saw the insider trading and double dealing. The cheating, the lying, the law breaking. And the bragging about it. I saw the corrupt business man who pulls the strings of politicians from behind the scenes. I saw the boy who molested me in middle-school. I saw the adults who watched it and let it happened then told me to stop bothering them when I tried to ask for help. I saw the boys who tried to stab me in the face with a pencil when I told them I didn’t go to church. I saw the girls who beat and humiliated me because I didn’t conform. I saw the women who told me to keep my head down, obey, and be better than perfect or I couldn’t do anything. I saw the doctors who wouldn’t listen to me when I said I was sick and in pain and couldn’t eat because what they saw was a deathly skinny teenage girl and assumed I was doing it to myself to be ‘pretty.’ I saw the hospital that denied to provide my hormone therapy because it was against their religious doctrine. I saw every man that has given me the “You should be grateful to be treated like S**t, because you could be treated like S**t and made to wear a burka.” I saw the hate and spite that makes me ashamed of the color of my skin. I saw an admitted sexual predator, an admitted fraud, an admitted law breaker, someone who supports the violent suppression of the opposition, running for the highest office of this country. And one of the things that hurt about all this was that people I know, good people who I respect love and care about, chose not to see what Trump is: the embodiment of everything they want to get rid of in politics, in business, and in our culture. Instead they chose to blame Hillary as the cause of all their problems. They didn’t stop to ask: “Which party is in control of my state conservative or democrat?”, “Did that party accept the government aid from the Obama administration and allow it to benefit the citizens whose best interests they are supposed to be representing?”, “Who has the party that controls my state been giving tax breaks to, businesses or citizens?”, “Is that party funding the services that I and my family need such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, clean air, clean water, clean power, yes or no?”, “Has the party in control of my state worked to bring jobs to my state yes or no?”, “Does the party in control of my state represent me?” For me the answers are: Conservative, No, (Kansas’ governor spat in the Obama administration’s face out of his own pride on that one, to the detriment of all Kansans.) Businesses, (We Kansas commoners have had to pick up the financial slack there. Our taxes have risen considerably and we’re not seeing any return on them in the form of public services. If the rich receive government aid in the form of tax breaks its considered good business. If the poor receive government aid in the form of welfare, it’s considered parasitism.), No, (Our governor has cut funding to education, healthcare, infrastructure, and any kind of environmental initiative.), No, (Our senators have voted against funding wind energy costing thousands of Kansans their jobs. And all their tax exemptions for businesses have thus far failed to produce any positive results.) And, finally, No, the party in control of my state does not represent me or my best interests. How many of you can give those same answers? The conservatives are the establishment; they are the ones who have been in control all this time. They are the one who continue to allow the rich to grow richer, while everyone else struggles to make ends meet. And they got to stay in power because they put on a show. They gave the world biggest pyrotechnic display while telling a fantastical fairytale complete with a wicked witch to hate. And they bamboozled everyone who voted for them into letting the establishment stay in power. Those of you who voted for Trump, who protest that you are not racists, you are not misogynists, you are not xenophobes, your mouth-piece is. The monster you voted for is. And in electing him you said that all of that is okay. That your willing to turn a blind eye to that kind of poisonous hate as long as you get a benefit. And to those of you who protest voted or sat on your hands, you did the same thing as well.
No politician is clean. Not even Bernie. And another thing that hurts about this is that he wasn’t willing to stand by what he preached. He said he supported women, and minorities, and LGBTQ, and environmentalism, etc., but when push came to shove he didn’t accept the Vice-Presidential post. He didn’t do what it was going to take to defeat Trump. I don’t know why he didn’t do it, but it sure felt like the only reason was because Hillary was a woman. It felt like he was saying: “Go home little girl, I won’t help you because you’ve got no place here.” And everyone who protest voted and sat on their hands said the same thing. My own friends and family, people who I love cherish and respect, people whose concerns I share and fight for, people who I thought counted me as a member of their team, just said girls have no place in politics. “You can’t do that you’re a girl.”
But, what hurt worst was watching my Mom and Grandmother feel like they failed. All the work they had done to make it so everything was equal: men, women, minorities, LGBTQ, the planet, all the work they had done: teaching, volunteering, building an inclusive community, protecting the environment, everything they had struggled through: physical abuse, sexual abuse, road-block after road-block after road-block, spat on, shat on, told “all you are is a C**t.”, and how their fight so that future generations of girls and women would not have to endure what they did, had failed. The hate was still there. And the country preferred that hate to having a woman president. Think for a minute how that must feel. How bad do you think it hurts to know that your fellow citizens, friends, family would rather have a leader who hates you than a leader who represents you? You want to justify it by saying you’re not the problem the establishment is, go ahead. But, your anti-establishment vote just let the establishment continue as is. The establishment is the glass ceiling we women have been trying to break for generations. Electing Hillary would’ve set a president that could’ve allowed us to gut the establishment, but, the majority of this country didn’t see it that way, all they saw was a nasty little girl who didn’t know her place and they agreed with the establishment that she should be crushed.
This election boiled down to one thing: respect. That’s the one thing everyone wanted and is entitled too. But, this country didn’t vote-in respect to its highest office, it voted in hatred. Think about that.