Featured prominently on CNN’s homepage Monday morning was an interview with a group of Hillary Clinton supporters.  In the segment, journalist Kait Richmond attempted to pinpoint what exactly cost Clinton the presidential election in their minds.  Richmond played the role of “devil’s advocate” – maintaining an objective approach as she posed questions to each of the six Democrats in the studio.  The responses she received were mixed to some degree, but the overall consensus was clear: they all firmly believed Clinton lost an unfair, uneven race through very little fault of her own.  The real culprits, according to this panel of Clinton supporters, were Russian hacking, racism, and the media’s “love affair” with Donald Trump…

Excuse me, I’m writing this and that last part even made me spit out my coffee.

Now, before this article begins to sound like I’m another angry conservative that’s flabbergasted by the Left’s inability to connect with American people who don’t live next to an ocean, I’d like to clarify my position: I’m not a big Donald Trump fan.  In my personal life, I’ve probably participated in as many debates attacking the man as I have defending him (maybe more) and parts of the Republican victory lap that has gone on in social media since the election have legitimately concerned me.  Our country is fiercely divided, and many of my GOP registered friends are treating the election like it’s the first touchdown they’ve ever scored, forgetting that the election wasn’t the real game.  All we’ve done so far is choose a team captain – a world chock full of different colored jerseys, and real conflicts, potentially awaits.  The game hasn’t even started yet.

With that said, any criticisms I can levy at conservatives about their dealing with this election like sore winners pale in comparison to how the Left has responded.  For all the down-talking and fear mongering they did before the election about how Donald Trump wouldn’t concede if he lost, they responded in exactly the same way the media told us we should fear conservatives might react.  For every level-headed and reasonable Democrat that makes a logical argument about Clinton’s popular vote count, there are three more calling republicans racist, burning American flags, and hurriedly deleting their YouTube videos about fleeing to Canada because they found out that Canada, like most nations, actually has immigration laws.

My concerns about the Democratic narrative of the recent election were fueled by the statements CNN’s panel of six intelligent, well-intentioned liberals made throughout the interview.  These weren’t wild-eyed protestors burning down police cars or crazy college kids throwing their participation trophies in the air – they were the same reasonable seeming folks we see at work, drink our coffee next to, and probably see eye to eye with about a myriad of things outside the political sphere… so to see them so unwilling to accept that the Clinton campaign may have made mistakes, that Clinton may have been a poorly chosen candidate, or that Trump could win without the KKK and Vlad the Russian Impaler conspiring to ruin democracy forever was not only disheartening, it was downright upsetting.

“I think it was racism that allowed Donald Trump to win,” Carol Evans told CNN. “I’m not saying that everybody that voted for Donald Trump is a racist … but I do believe that they allowed racism to move into the White House. Let’s say that racism reacted against an Obama presidency, and that racism won.”

That statement, in various forms, can be found on every social media platform, every news site comment section, and in at least one instance, written on the inside of a bathroom stall at an Applebees near my house.  In the minds of people who believe this, sixty million Americans went to the voting booth simply to hurt minorities.  This concept is predicated on the idea that the American people voted for an African American president twice, but their inherent racism was just too strong to allow them to vote for a rich white woman who shared some of his political beliefs.

This argument boils down to, “you’re racist for choosing the wrong white person,” and it completely ignores the social and economic issues permeating throughout rural America that have gone almost completely ignored by the federal government.