This post analyzing how women voted for Hillary got me thinking about the women I know in real life and how they voted.

Something I noticed very early on, even before the Democratic convention named Hillary as the candidate, was that despite her being a woman, she wasn’t very popular among women I knew in real life who I normally would have expected to embrace her.

They were mostly baby boomers, educated, middle to upper middle class, lifelong democrats. I was puzzled. As these women revealed they did not back Hillary one after another, I was surprised. They didn’t really give a specific answer, but they had clearly already made up their mind about her.

This was before Wikileaks, before things really got heated, long. long, long before the last few weeks or months to election day.

I wish they would have been more specific as to exactly “what” it was about Hillary, so I could understand better why a group that by all predictors should have been excited as all get out to have a candidate for president who was, at least on the surface, so similar to them. But they were not.

But since I don’t know exactly what it was, I cannot say. However I could see early that it did not bode well for her chances if this group the democrats themselves considered a slam-dunk was actually not.

I got a similar response from women my age or younger who live in the same rural area of a blue state I do. Most of them also lean democrat, but once again they also said they were not planning to vote for her. Odd. Even women I knew to be liberal leaning.

In fact, in real life I only had a total of three women say they were voting for Hillary. Out of dozens and dozens who on the surface, should have been. Weird.

So I looked on Facebook, where I have friends and professional relationships from all over the country. I noticed that of all of them, one group in particular was very pro-Hillary: Women my age or younger living in large metro areas such as New York, San Francisco, Seattle, etc.

The difference between what I was seeing and hearing in real life versus what I saw online may as well have been two different universes!

And that is what I think happened. Hillary staff, the media, the polls, the backers were likely caught up in an echo chamber effect in these same urban areas where women (and many men) were very supportive of Hillary. But because they likely don’t interact much with the millions of Americans living outside of metro areas, they weren’t hearing what I was — that she did not have their support on anywhere near the same levels.

Maps that showed how people voted not only by state but also by county confirm the same. Metro areas appear as blue dots in an otherwise overwhelmingly red map.

Over and over I heard women in real life say that while they did not agree with some of the things Trump had said, they were voting for him. I know most of these women well. They are not Stepford wife types. They are not lifelong, hardcore right wing folks. They are not sexist, racist, bigoted, haters. They are not deplorable nor are they uninformed or unintelligent.

And I also know if they truly believed Trump was any of those things either, they never would have voted for him. Guaranteed. These are peaceful, kind, thoughtful women.

So I know many are worried that these people who voted for Trump are horrible, but they are not. Really.

I don’t believe he is either. To be honest, my guess is that he likely has Asperger’s or some sort of spectrum disorder, or put less technically is of such high intelligence in ways most people aren’t, that he just doesn’t naturally understand social graces. I know people like him in real life actually, and they are good people, if odd.

If you are among the worried, to you I say this, “It’s all going to be OK. I promise.” Relax. Have a glass of wine or something. And be thankful we live in a nation where we can vote. And disagree. And even protest peacefully (not riot, big difference) And vote again next time.

Imagine the Constitution saying, “I’ve got this!” Because it does! So long as we stick with that, pretty much every worst case scenario is checked and balanced. Thank Goodness for that!