and by they I mean just about anyone talking about the “angry, bitter” Hillary supporters. Hillary is great, awesome even. Would have made a hell of a president. But if we spent our entire lifetimes being angry that wishes don’t come true then everyone who has ever bought a lottery ticket would be too pissed off to function.

The reality is that come next January we are going to have a fuckwit in office, no matter who wins. We are going to have someone who thinks women aren’t quite full human beings, who has no idea what it’s like to be poor or struggling or working class at a time when vast numbers of people are poorer, struggling harder and lacking meaningful work. We are going to have yet another executive branch brought to you by some giant corporations instead of by the people, for the people (cough* AT&T*cough). That is what we are pissed about. Hillary wouldn’t have solved all of these problems, but we saw in her our best chance at fixing some of them.

And the more they turn this into a a battle between cranky old ladies and everyone else, the less attentions those big things like poverty, healthcare, education, bodily autonomy, etc. are going to get.

And it’s not an accident that they are framing it in a way that makes us seem like jilted first wives (cough*Amanda Marcotte*cough) left old and alone because our party left us for the younger voters who don’t demand so much and aren’t mistrustful (yet) of the party’s sweet words. I mean if they actually got what we are fighting for, most people would agree. We want our government to work for us, not against us (telecom immunity). We want accountability and the constitution to be upheld (impeachment). We want healthcare for everyone (there is no one-word description for Obama’s pathetic healthcare plan, sorry.)

We’ve seen just recently Elizabeth Edwards turned into a blamemobile cause her husband coudn’t keep his zipper up. it’s funny that she becomes a scapegoat just after she becomes someone recognized by large swaths of the country who actually knows some shit about healthcare reform and doesn’t buy Obama’s version of.

That is how we frame powerful, smart, fighting women in this country. We either use the metaphor of the jilted wife or we dig up dirt so metaphor becomes literal. Either way, it diminishes their power, our power, to affect real change and influence. Our voices can be dismissed cause we are just angry, bitter, irrational creatures who are pouting over something.

We are not angry because our candidate didn’t win. We are angry because our best chance at fixing the country was shot down with misogyny and election fixing. We are angry because we see that the next four years won’t be much better than the last eight. We are angry because the real problems of this country are going ignored while the press and the politicians turn to soap opera style dramatics to subdue the populace.

But if the acted like they fucking understood that, then things might actually have to change. And then wouldn’t have us angry, bitter, old ladies to blame for their failings anymore.