There is an agreement among those who are involved in this election that there is more passion and zeal on the Republican side than on the Democratic side. The drive, the energy, the push for Obama in 2008 was unanimous. The black community was almost completely united in their thrill that a black man might become president. There does not seem to be that same unity among women for the great historic step forward.
Perhaps that is not surprising. After all, Hillary has been in the public eye, in leadership roles, in and out of controversies for 30 years. Like barnacles on a ship, accusations by the Republicans have slowly grown on her reputation. It has been observed that she has to be the world’s smartest crook because charges and accusations have been made against her and nothing has ever been found to bring her to trial. The millions spent on investigations of Whitewater, the millions spent on Bengahzi, the millions spent on investigating her emails have all ended up producing nothing but a perception of dishonesty in the public memory. So that is one reason that people are not wholeheartedly passionate about her.
But I also am convinced that Donald Trump is the perfect example of white privilege who is running to defend and protect white power in this country. There are a whole host of women who would rather protect their white power status than have a woman as a president. A woman in leadership of a country is not an unheard of thing as England, Germany and a host of other European countries have had a woman and they have faired well. India has had a woman and other far east countries are led by women. So a woman president may not be such a prized accomplishment for some women. They are much more passionate about maintaining the white privileges they have. They have seen how the minorities have been treated in this country, starting with the Native Americans. These women are very much afraid that if the minorities escape the limitations put on them by the white legislators and these minorities gain power, all of their comfortable special perks of being white will be eliminated.
Their religion is part of their white privilege. Their churches are fighting to keep the USA as an imaginary Christian nation. They want to reinstitute Christian rites and rituals to the official public square, prayer (Christian prayer) in schools, Christmas decorations at public expense on public grounds, and prohibit the building of temples, mosques and other places of worship for non-Christian groups. The religious right believes that white power is the defender of Christianity.
When the choice for a large number of women comes down to their white privilege or a woman as president, the self-preservation of their comfortable way of life comes first.