"Do You Think She's Going to Win?"

Yeah, yeah: one person, one anecdote, I know.  Bite me.

She glanced at my shirt as she was taking my order.  Middle-aged white woman working food service in Kentucky.

"Do you think she's going to win?" Her voice was wistful, almost pleading.

It took me a second to realize she was referring to the Hillary 2016 image on my T-shirt.

"Oh, yes she is," I said in my most encouraging voice.

"I really hope so."  She took my money and gave me my food.

"Be sure to vote!" I sang as I turned away.

It didn't hit me until later.  As bad as a Trump presidency would be for people like me, it would be infinitely worse for minimum-wage workers like the woman who had just sold me some food.

Maybe I imagined the longing and hope I heard in her voice.

But when I vote on November 8 - no early voting in Kentucky without proof you will be out of the state on Election Day - I will be voting for more than just a* historic victory for progressives, Democrats and women.

I will be voting for - and with - the ignored, unsung working poor women of Kentucky for whom Hillary is more than a symbol.


* Yes, "a historic."  "Historic" has an aspirate "h," meaning it is pronounced, not silent, and therefore takes the article "a," not "an."  "An historic" is illiterate.