According to the legion of leftist pundits, America has suffered a loss due to Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 Presidential elections. According to them, and Mrs. Clinton herself, one of the reasons this gruesome mishap has happened, is a sexism of Americans.

“I started the campaign knowing that I would have to work extra hard to make women and men feel comfortable with the idea of a woman president,” Mrs. Clinton told CBS’s Jane Pauley, when reflecting on the causes of her defeat.

Many feminists agree that it was a rampant sexism of voters that cost her the presidency. “What actually happened to Hillary Clinton reeks of misogyny,” wrote Rachael Revesz in The Independent. “It reeks so badly that you can smell it stronger than a sniffer dog can suss out crack cocaine.” Later, Hillary complained that women don’t support each other as much as ethnic minorities do – which allowed for Obama’s election, but not hers. The other problem, as indicated by Mrs. Clinton, was that women let themselves be pushed around by their husbands, fathers, boyfriends and male bosses “not to vote for the ‘girl’.”

Hillary, who deliberately emphasized her gender during the campaign and positioned herself as a champion of women’s rights and vigorously played the “woman card,” found herself a victim of negative gender stereotypes. Undoubtedly, in the heated struggle of 2016, Hillary was judged by her “woman” attributes – such as style, facial expressions, and “shrill” voice – but does it mean that it was the primal factor that “stole an election” from her in favor of “toxically masculine” Donald Trump?

Political scientists will tell you that women do just fine at the ballot box. “Being a woman doesn’t hurt you in an election,” says Kathleen Dolan, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. When women run for political office, they win at about the same rate men do. Likewise, a candidate’s gender doesn’t seem to affect the amount of money she is able to raise for her campaign – and Hillary proved it herself. And, should she fumble in her leadership, she isn’t judged more harshly than her male counterparts.

Monica Schneider, associate professor of political science at Miami University, points out at that numerous studies that found that, while Americans hold gender stereotypes about women’s traits and they hold gendered ideas about certain political issues, neither of those things seem to affect the way people vote. “On the whole, sexism doesn’t have a huge impact on whether women get elected,” Schneider says, “Instead, political party is the primary factor people consider when voting, followed by incumbency.”

Thus, it wasn’t Hillary being a “girl” that made her lose, even despite her outraising and outspending her opponent by hundreds of millions of dollars and having commercial airwaves practically all for herself – it was her being a deeply corrupt and power-hungry Beltway insider. She lost as a candidate, not as a woman-candidate. Americans, those pitiful deplorables, were wiser than Hillary thought of them and saw her through.

Now, less than two years prior to 2020 elections, the left continues to play the “woman card.”

In the recent Huff Post’s op-ed “She’s not ‘The One’: the antidote to sexism in the race toward the presidency,” Emma Gray argues that being the only woman running for the America’s highest office hurt Hillary Clinton. But now, there are several potential female candidates, -- including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) who have launched serious presidential campaigns, along with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is also reportedly mulling over a bid. Thus, chances of a woman to become a president are much higher. “These women span the ideological spectrum of the Democratic Party — and just maybe in 2020, the sheer number of them out on the campaign trail and on the debate stage, expressing a variety of political views, even arguing with each other while displaying a variety of demeanors, will force voters to look at women politicians as individual candidates, rather than as avatars for 52 percent of the population,” assumes Gray.

However, even a brief study of the key issues raised by the candidates are strikingly identical -- they do not “span the ideological spectrum of the Democratic Party” much. “Medicare For All”; ban assault weapons; open borders and elimination of ICE; free college education; expansion of abortion access – “reproductive rights,” as they deceivingly put it; fight the “climate change”; groundless criticism of the Trump’s economic policies despite their proven efficiency. The candidates have some differences over taxation, although most of them lean towards higher rates; and over foreign policy – whether or not we should withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan. Clearly, a diversity of thought is not a virtue in the Democratic camp!

There may be five, ten, twenty Democratic women candidates – what would matter for the sane voter, is their ability to be an effective leader of the country, not their private parts.

Identity politics that is so widely promoted by the left, or the expectation of the certain groups divided on the basis on their gender, skin color, sexual orientation, etc., to vote blue, keeps failing. It fails not because people are ignorant and can’t see how Democrats champion their rights, -- they don’t! – but simply because most people refuse to embrace a victim mentality. The #WalkAway campaign that encouraged people to leave the divisive Democratic Party was a stark example of it.

The left seems to be too stubborn to learn the lesson that it is not gender, race or any other “minority” card that wins the elections. It is respect and proven ability to defend and promote basic American values – personal freedom, individualism, and free market. That is what made America the greatest nation of Earth. And if a candidate who truly believes in it happens to wear a lipstick, so be it, she may count on my vote just as much as a candidate who wears a tie. But until the Democrats come to their senses and quit adopting unnatural and purely dangerous socialist rhetoric and policies, no number of beautiful ladies on the stage can change my mind.

Photo credit: Aaron Jacobs