Hillary Did Win the Popular Vote
Hillary Clinton breaks Presidential glass ceiling! I wish!
I am a Hillary Clinton supporter and very excited to vote with my grandmother, who is 93. Just 3 years before she was born the US granted women the right to vote. She is also excited to vote for the first female president and is delighted with how far our world has come.
That’s from Maddy, one of my students.
Hillary Clinton may not have broken the Presidential glass ceiling, but she did make history.
2016 was the first time that Maddy’s grandmother, Maddy and I were all able to vote for a woman for President of the United States.
Not only that, she won the popular vote!
If we lived in any other country we would now have a woman president.
Instead, we have an electoral college that is mismatched with the actual will of the people.
That needs to change! Because the will of the people is being thwarted by an archaic system.
Overcoming unconscious bias against strong women leaders
HRC won the majority of the people’s vote. But she also had to work against our unconscious biases against strong female leaders.
Madame President!
It’s “normal” for men to seek status and power. But when women do the same thing they get called “feminazi” and feminism becomes “the F word.”
Hillary was demonized by far right and far left, alike.
As Claire Cain Miller at the New York Times points out, insulting powerful women cuts them down to size. As when Donald criticized Hillary’s body and when Rush Limbaugh fretted at the thought of seeing a woman age in office — put downs that both attack women and imply that their worth lies in their looks.
Usually the insults are subtler, playing to stereotypes, says Miller. Strong women like HRC are “angry.” Or “emotional,” not a rational leader. And does she have the stamina to be president, or is she too weak? Some also “insulted” Hillary Clinton by calling her “a grandmother” — belittling women with children in an agist slap, as well.
A quarter century ago Hillary and Bill began facing a barrage of mostly made up scandal in an attempt to delegitimize their governance. The scandal mongering may have been a reaction to their liberal attitudes during a more sexist and racist era. As with witch hunts, if you repeat an accusation often enough people start to believe it. Where there is smoke there is fire? Sometimes it’s just smoke and mirrors. But a quarter century of demonization has stuck.
We are emerging from a history of ism’s
HRC may not have won the election due to our quirky election rules, but our votes for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama show that we are gradually moving away from our sad history of racism and sexism. Which is unfortunately being met by a strong backlash.
Too bad. HRC would have been an amazing President!
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Posted on November 11, 2016, in politics/class inequality, sexism and tagged 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, historic election, presidential glass ceiling, sexism. Bookmark the permalink. 30 Comments.
BroadBlogs 
“Now Hillary has won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes!”. Hillary didn’t WIN anything. She “received” more of the popular vote. As others have pointed out, California was the largest single determinant of that fact. And I wouldn’t say California is necessarily representative of the country. Additionally, again as others have pointed out, as Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton both knew, each would have campaigned differently if the Popular vote had any significance at all.
Hillary actually did win the popular vote. And if popular vote determined the presidency both candidates would have campaigned differently.
California is doing better economically than most states, which means the people are less frustrated. And people of different ethnicities get along better here, too. If America did things more the way California does we would probably all be better off.
It is not official as yet. Odds are HRC will indeed get the majority.
Also what is NOT being mentioned is that an estimated 2-3 mil illegals voted in this year’s presidential election as well.
I wonder if that is true though? Illegals are often worried about being discovered so that would be taking a big risk. And apparently a lot of people — not necessarily conservatives — create fake news that a lot of people believe. Some do it because they make a lot of money off of the advertising. Others do it because they want to affect attitudes in some way.
It’s not a big risk. You don’t have to show ID to vote! Nor is it required to register to vote in most states.
I did early voting here in MD. I know my neighbors names and addresses. I could have easily have came back in the following day and pretended to be one of them. Voter fraud is easy in this country. Very easy.
If the estimates are 2-3 mil voted in this election, let’s just cut it in half and say 1 mil voted. I am confident that a million most certainly did vote.
As for being discovered……a friend of my girlfriend works for Bank of America. Illegals can open bank accounts. All they need is an unexpired passport and a current address. No social security number is required. Nor can they be asked if they are a citizen. However, if you ARE a citizen you MUST produce a social security card AND picture ID (government issued). So, the bank employees know they are illegals. How? Because if they were legal, they would have social security numbers. They would be non resident aliens with various visa status codes. Non residents can get social security numbers. You see how screwed up the laws are here.
Now Hillary has won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes!
There is a slight solace in Hillary winning the popular vote—and yet, that is what also happened in 2000 with Gore, and we are still seeing the effects of a Bush presidency going on 16 years later. Thanks to Bush-era, post 9-11 policies for example, we have a executive branch with extended powers (policies that were further expanded under the Obama presidency, despite early promises to end such policies http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/181/restore-habeas-corpus-rights-for-enemy-combatants/) which allow the ability to indefinitely suspend habeas corpus and unilaterally execute “terrorist threats.” Something tremendously concerning before, but now that Donald Trump is slated to be the Commander in Chief, it seems especially alarming as he is both a supremely volatile, reactionary man who is surrounding himself with racists and bigots (http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-offers-attorney-general-post-to-sen-sessions-alabama-republican-was-an-early-trump-supporter-1479473455) who actually wield some political and intellectual heft.
I just cannot be comforted much by the popular vote going to Hillary, when we are facing the stark realities of a Trump presidency. The damage he and his cohorts can do in the time they have (especially as it’s extremely unlikely that Dems will win big in the 2018 midterms http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/14/democrats_unlikely_to_take_the_senate_in_2018_midterms.html) is great—and real lives are at stake NOW.
It’s so sad that we have elected a President who has so many people terrified.
Too bad…
I think those people who are “terrified” are simply exaggerating the significance of Trump’s win. What they are really having great difficulty dealing with is the emotional devastation of this loss.
That could be true for some. But I know people who are afraid of losing their health insurance. And I know others who are afraid of being targeted because they are Muslim or Latino. And some are worried about the increasing hate crimes that the open racism has unleashed.
In a hypothetical world where these two candidates were stripped of their genders, along with every bias that goes along with being a male or female- the American people would have no choice but to solely focus on who is the most qualified candidate for the job. In this hypothetical world, Hillary would have obliterated Trump. As you mentioned, it’s easy to equate a strong, powerful women to a feminazi because, as a society, we aren’t used to associating women with leadership roles. When we see a woman who clearly meets the criteria of a leader, we shun her because our subconscious mind has been programmed to think she’s overstepping her boundaries. The hardest part of this is that often times WOMEN do this to other WOMEN. How can we have these irrational, distasteful judgments about people of our own gender? This is a cultural issue we’ve been working towards fixing since suffrage. It’s important to keep in mind, especially during these times, if a woman hadn’t fought for your rights- you’d be imprisoned soley because of your chromosomal pattern.
Thanks for sharing!
Unfortunately, almost all of us have unconsciously internalized sexism to some degree. The only way you can get rid of it is to help people see that they have it and motivate them to try to see things differently.
Hopefully we will one day get past our sexism and racism. But this particular election hasn’t been very hopeful on that account, I’m afraid.
Also have you seen the statistic about young millennial voters? That statistic gives me so much hope that we are now entering an era where the youth is largely moving towards voting not only more liberally and democratically, but also against hatred and bigotry. There was a comedian, Louis C.K., who came out on Conan for Hillary for the exact reasons that many other politicians attacked her on. Particularly on her motherhood. He joked that her motherhood would actually make her an amazing formidable president. I love this interview because in my opinion Louis, whether he meant to or not, took many of the sexist insults that HRC faced over the election cycle and gave them back to her as a reason that she’s powerful. At one point in there interview he tells Conan that this country needs a “tough bitch mother who no body likes, who just does the job”. This moment is golden, even though it is not politically correct, because he takes what she has been criticized on by the mainstream media, and commends her for it like he would a male candidate.
Thanks! Love Millennials!
I think the fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote is definitely a sign that our country has come a long way when it comes to its views on women. How ironic that our next president doesn’t necessarily align with this sentiment.
In the election, for my first presidential vote ever, I personally voted for Carly Fiorina as a write-in candidate. She was not registered as one so I knew my vote would not count. My vote would be thrown out, and for me that was okay for a few reasons. One reason is that I live in California and had great confidence that all 55 of our electoral college votes would be going to Hillary despite my one vote. The other reason is that I wanted to make a personal statement with my vote. I wanted to vote for someone who had directly stood up to Donald Trump’s misogyny and degrading comments. She did so on stage with ten other male presidential hopefuls (I will post a link of this below). I saw her courage in that moment and it was something I wanted to acknowledge and appreciate. I witnessed Hillary Clinton do this as well, but for me I wanted to vote for a more unsung hero who really impacted my personal life. There is no coincidence that this was a woman just like Hillary. Regardless of the election’s final outcome, I won’t forget the strides women have taken in this race.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences with this.
I totally agree with the article. There are great lessons to learn from this election, which I think would better prepare the next female candidate. For example, how the candidate is perceived by the public like a symbolic of change rather than making things better. I am amazed that high school students take part in the protest, while they can’t vote. I don’t think it is a total loss, it inspires the next generation to claim their rights. Change is on its way and it is just a matter of time.
I do think the next woman will it easier. Hillary was ahead of her time in early 90s and was strongly and relentlessly attacked. So much that she came to be demonized.
Women who have come since haven’t been so strongly attacked and I they would have an easier time.
I was shock too when I saw on news that Donald Trump has been elected as US President.
Just before I went to bed last night I heard news that Steve Bannon (sexist white nationalist) was going to be Donald Trump’s chief strategist. Oddly enough that’s something I had predicted. (George W. Bush was Karl Rove’s useful idiot and I suspected that Donald Trump was Steve Bannon’s useful idiot.) And last night was the first time I ever had a nightmare about politics.
Love hates Trump
And Hillary Clinton didn’t just win the popular vote. She won it by a substantial margin. By more than 2 million votes. 🙂
Where are you getting that “by more than 2 million votes”? I know that there’s a lot of California yet to be counted, but the latest numbers I can find are here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/nov/08/us-election-2016-results-live-clinton-trump?view=map&type=presidential
currently showing a difference of around 600K
Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/opinion/clintons-substantial-popular-vote-win.html?_r=0
Your article is from 3 days earlier than this one.
I believe she’d have won by even more than that, a lot more than that, if this year hadn’t been further contaminated by a flagrant disenfranchisement drive by Republicans. This country, this species, is not as vile as Trump’s election makes it look. We just have a helluva lot of work to do before that’s clearly visible and reflected in the White House.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-gops-attack-on-voting-rights-was-the-most-under-covered-story-of-2016/
I think you’re right. Thanks. 🙂
Your are right… something like Like Bush- Al Gore 2000 (the latter lost; I have been reading on The US elections as you can see, LOL, correct me if I am wrong )…
I saw some petitions aiming to end the Electoral College system. There are petitions too… such as this one: https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/sign-the-petition-abolish-the-electoral-college
By the way, Hillary Clinton’s Concession Speech was so moving… I firmly believe that as she said… “we should never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it”.
I am sure she would have made a difference in a global scope. Sigh!
Well I’m signing!
She would’ve been so great! Her policies are actually very populist, but because she’s been around so long, and has grown so careful after constant (mostly false) attacks — which have muddied her image, in 2016 people saw her as establishment — even though she’s long been a revolutionary.
“If we lived in any other country we would now have a woman president.”
Err no, Hillary would not be president in most any other democratic country. Most democratic countries inherit the British westminster system where the leader is the leader of the party with the most seats in the parliament, and it’s not uncommon at all for that victor to not win the “popular vote”. To give just one example, the Labor party in Australia in 1998 got 50.98% of the 2 party preferred vote, but didn’t win government because the votes weren’t in the right seats. Just the same as in America.
Oh, silly you!
I mean one person = one vote.
You’re not looking at it the way I mean it. Even in parliamentary systems each person’s vote counts equally. In our system the votes of those in the more empty states carry heavier weight. We don’t have a one-person-one-vote system.