Mariella Gattini

This past Election Day was the most excruciating day in recent history. I could see how Hillary lost swing state after swing state. I can’t even be mad at the American people because the majority of them, like me, voted for her—Hillary won the popular vote.

I’m still trying to assimilate what happened, but right off the bat I can say that they finally made her pay for the sins of her husband and those of President Obama. Most of us were ready to overlook where she was coming from. We were focused on who she was at the moment—since she is not Barack Obama and she is certainly not her husband—and the promise she represented in terms of future social progress in the country.

I can’t blame those who elected the future president. We haven’t seen real economic progress in low-income and middle-class families, those families are the ones called “the forgotten” in the media, and that is a very good definition. Quoting the movie The American President by Aaron Sorkin, President Obama has been so busy keeping his job that he forgot to do his job. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how complex and demanding the job is, and how dependent it is on public perception, but if you are unable to understand that you are elected because for the most vulnerable you are indeed their last resort, their last beacon of hope, you shouldn’t run, you shouldn’t use them as a platform to get into the Presidents Boys Club.

I voted for the re-election of President Obama in 2012 to give him the chance to do what he promised, since the first term is always all about getting re-elected for a second term. He failed to deliver—he didn’t close Guantanamo, he didn’t end the intervention of the U.S. in the Middle East, and, at national level, most of the jobs created had been in the hospitality and retail sectors, jobs that could have been taken by those without a college degree. Instead, those positions have been filled with overqualified college graduates in desperate need for a job.

I’ve seen how President Obama has spent most of his time trying to reason with, or to please, conservatives, and how conservatives have been completely determined to boycott every one of his initiatives. Not even his healthcare plan worked. It didn’t because you don’t tell corporations how to run their business—they are not charities; they are money-making machines. As a result, all those people that President Obama forced to get into his healthcare program—otherwise they had to pay a fine—are paying higher premiums, and for everyone else healthcare has become more expensive than ever.

For all of the above, and more, Hillary paid the price, because she was perceived by many as the continuation of Obama’s failures.

On the other hand, women who could have voted for her in solidarity voted against her mainly because most of them still cannot conceive the idea that women are powerful enough to handle a position of leadership at the highest political levels. Other women can’t possibly forgive her for having stayed in her marriage after her husband’s numerous cheating scandals. I can relate to that because I wouldn’t stay in a marriage of that nature, but I understand two things: First, she grew up in a time of very permissive women, who stayed in their marriages because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. And second, she was in the White House surrounded by enemies. I guess she decided to stay for the benefit of her daughter and that of her own political future. If she had to decide between her family and her enemies, she, of course, chose her family. The problem is that most women today don’t understand and don’t accept that rationale. They are tired of submissive women trapped in marriages of convenience.

I thought about that when I was pondering my options in terms of presidential candidates, but the fact that she stayed in her marriage, with her entire public persona framed by her husband, wasn’t a deterrent for me. On the opposite, it gave me another incentive to vote for her, so she could finally have her own individual and personal stamp on her work, independently and away from who she had been, opening a new chapter in her life, where she could have all the power and her own personal identity.

It was not to be, but I’m not worried about her because I’m sure she is going to find a way, like she always does, to do something good in this world. What really worries me is the incoming administration. Trump already sounds very much like Mussolini, calling to unity and expressing his willingness to be the president of all citizens, including the ones who didn’t vote for him, and promising to rebuild the infrastructure in this country, which is really falling apart. Mussolini did the same thing, he focused on Italy’s infrastructure, new buildings, and monuments, creating a big number of construction jobs, but that short-term prosperity came with a high price—the repression, persecution, and elimination of his opponents.

I hope I’m wrong, I want to believe that Trump won’t be able to harm the American people because we live in a country of laws and in a republic based on solid democratic grounds, created and fueled by strong, resilient individuals of all races, backgrounds, creeds, and genders.

I have great hopes for women in this country. I already see a future woman president on the horizon—the Democrat Senator for New York, Kirsten Gillibrand. She has all the credentials needed to lead from the Oval Office. Let’s never give up.

For now, we have to learn to cope with the loss of an extraordinary woman politician, who dared to be who she decided to be. Most of us gave Hillary our support, yet we lost her. Let’s do what she would—let’s wake up from this presidential election coma, dust ourselves off, and use this pain to fuel our best work. Look forward, and keep going, because our best days are still ahead.