It’s a funny thing, really. Just one week ago, I was expecting this article to be titled “The Glass Ceiling” (no clue at the time on subtitle) and musing on how electing the first female US President (and even more pitifully, as Canadian conservative writer Mark Steyn pointed out, wife to a former President) made absolutely no real difference to anyone other than the sappy. Boy was my prediction incorrect. The silent majority spoke out Tuesday night, and they made their voices heard loud and clear. To many, regardless of where they lay on the political spectrum, it was a quite a shock. And if the last communications with Kellyanne Conway (Trump’s campaign manager) prior to election night are to be believed, even Trump himself was surprised.

Emotions were thoroughly mixed: great joy or at least relief among the millions of Trump supporters, pathetic tears and emotional meltdowns from the Clinton folks. If you think I’m being overly harsh with calling such reactions “pathetic,” consider what British conservative writer Douglas Murray said to American liberal writer Sam Harris last year when they discussed the European migrant crisis shortly after the November 2015 Paris attacks:

On the day after losing the election, leaders on the (British) Left cried and cried all day. “Who would vote for a Republican like that? Who would vote for a Democrat like that?”

So please grow up and prepare to take back the Senate in 2018. Whining and crying is wasting your own time.

Even worse, many took to the streets shortly after the election to protest Trump’s 100 percent democratic victory, save for some possible (but ultimately negligible and sadly legal) voter suppression here and there. These protests soon turned to riots. What morons. Everyone, including many conservatives, was worried about Trump supporters getting rowdy after his loss that never happened. To sink down to their (ultimately nonexistent) level is hypocritical and ultimately rather treasonous. Do you hate democracy? If so, please move to North Korea. That should suit your totalitarian Leftist desires a lot more. Thank you.

Anyway, reflections on what this election result says about our country were greatly mixed, depending on which political echo chamber you listened to. While both sides largely agreed that the polls were drastically off due to many Trump supporters remaining in the closet when polled (and many pollsters likely being biased in who they sampled), the conclusions on our electorate were far more divided. Those on the Left tended more so to see this as a sad reflection on how racist, sexist, and bigoted our country still is: a “white-lash,” as CNN commentator Van Jones described it. Those on the Right tended to hit the nail on the head more precisely though in their evaluations of political correctness, identity politics, and moral hypocrisy. Lefties (obviously I don’t mean all of you; just the ones whom do blame this largely on hatred), I am here to tell you why you are largely wrong.

Perhaps nothing represents the frustration of many Trump supporters toward “Crooked Hillary” more than her public declaration that half of Trump supporters were “deplorable.” Her leaked view of Bernie Sanders supporters as “basement dwellers” didn’t help either, particularly as the “Bernie or bust” crowd never truly died off. Considering the amount of fallout that Mitt Romney received in 2012 for his 47 percent comment, Clinton’s statement seems downright stupid if not overtly condescending. Is it any wonder then that so many voted Trump? When one of only two candidates shows how little she cares about you and another is at least pretending to stand up for you and the other forgotten voices, why on Earth would you vote for the more personally demeaning one whom thinks you’re trash? Just as “nasty woman” and “bad Hombre” later would become rallying cries for many of those against Trump, “deplorable” very quickly became a badge of pride for many Trump supporters.

“Deplorable” was merely one insult hurled at Trump supporters. Among the more abundant ones were “racist,” “bigot,” “xenophobe,” and “sexist.” Obviously, most Trump supporters fit none of these descriptions. While some truly vile people did exist on the dark fringes of the alt right (see conservative writer David French’s encounters with them here, most Trump supporters were simply average, everyday people who saw more to gain from a Trump presidency than a Clinton one. Getting called racist for merely holding a different idea is extraordinarily annoying, if not frustrating. I myself, even as a “person of color,” have had to deal with having such untruthful labels thrown at me for merely making a joke or pointing out disturbing facts about the Muslim world. The term “racist” has lost all meaning at this point, and Clinton’s nonchalant ascribing of the term to Trump supporters showed how little she cared. Again, why on Earth would they vote for someone who clearly didn’t care about them and instead merely brushed them off as racists?

Evidently, the Left have yet to learn from their defeat this year, as it appears that constantly labeling anything that moves a racist or bigot is still very trendy. Blaming the whole election result on racism and sexism doesn’t help either. Nor is there any evidence to back it up. Despite Trump doing most strongly with whites, he won many states that Obama previously won in his campaigns and did far better among blacks and Hispanics than both Romney and McCain. Fewer women, Hispanics, and blacks voted for Clinton than they previously did for Obama. The facts simply don’t fit the narrative. The results make more sense in light of this Presidential election having the lowest voter turnout (overall and for each respective party) since 1996.

Ultimately, instead of shattering a glass ceiling, Democrats found themselves in a glass bubble. They were entirely deaf to the voices of those whom voted for Trump but chose to insulate themselves from people’s concerns. Adapting a sense of moral superiority while failing to demonstrate it only alienates voters. It merely supports the concept of the “liberal elite:” academia, mainstream media, celebrities, and crooked politicians whom simply can’t connect with the common man and woman. A corrupt political establishment (represented by Hillary Clinton) neglected large swaths of the American people, and Trump appeared as a potential savior. Democrats will need to do some serious introspection if they hope to make any gains in 2018 and 2020.