Liberals did not have a good election night in 2016. In Colorado, it was almost good, but Colorado is not an island–despite it and New Mexico’s distinctiveness from the surrounding areas on electoral maps. The state is affected just as much by what happened and liberals here, despite all the hard work, were left disappointed by the results.
It is easy to armchair quarterback the failures and the stumbles of the Clinton campaign in hindsight, but the outcome was rather shocking on Tuesday night and still now. There were severe miscalculations on partisanship, passion, and all the things that are not easily quantified–those things that make us human.
Politics is supremely simple and it is immensely complex and when you think you have the all of the answers in a set a numbers, I encourage you to ask them about their children or about their retirement or about the future and see what the numbers say.
Quantifying is an important and necessary feature of political work, but it is not the end all, be all. If we lose sight of our humanity–liberals and conservatives–the numbers don’t mean a damn thing and neither do our words. May we all be better.
Onward to 2020.