Hillary also had to contend with Bernie as her opponent in the primary, a much more beloved candidate who polled better than both her and Trump, and was also handicapped by the Dems running a crooked primary by saying that they didn’t have to and would never pick Bernie as the candidate, even if he won the primary. She also called herself a “Goldwater girl” during the campaign, a man who ran for President on segregation as a campaign promise. People also had a negative view of her because she’s a Clinton, and there was a bit of dissatisfaction with “political dynasties” after the Bush era.

And Harris ran a campaign that tried to appeal to conservative voters with promises such as building the wall on the Mexican border and campaigning with Cheney, which caused her to immediately begin losing percentages in the polls amongst independent voters. She also has a legacy of questionable actions against minorities of color during her time in California, which I saw a number of people criticizing.

Not to say that sexism and racism didn’t play a part because oh my God, even here in liberal Massachusetts I see that shit. But they also did the usual Democrat campaign strategy of not appealing to their base because they were courting a mythical moderate conservative voter that doesn’t exist, and that’s a losing strategy. Dems fall in love, Republicans fall in line. AOC is so popular because she speaks to the issues that people have, and she does so passionately.

Despite that, I unfortunately remain unconvinced that she could pull out a presidential victory because of the aforementioned racism and sexism that’s so prevalent in this country. As someone wiser than me once said, racism is so American that when you criticize it, people think that you’re criticizing America.