It was one of those surreal American moments: An election where a nation’s hope for freedom and national security, an urge to protect the U.S. Constitution, and the need to restore prosperity to the middle class yielded the one candidate most singularly unqualified, uninterested, and unlikely to deliver any part of that.

But, why? Let’s take a look.

Back in the summer, after the Republican and Democratic primaries had yielded their bitter fruit, many folks were laughing at the GOP for producing Donald Trump as their candidate. To be honest, I was too, but I also knew that at the same time, the Democrats were just whistling past the graveyard. They were intent on a coronation, while huge swaths of the country are hurting. The Dems’ focus on social issues is something I’m completely behind, but as a party, they were completely out of touch with what was happening out there this year: the economy.

By “the economy,” I don’t mean the Dow Jones. We see it. It’s strong. But I’m not sure it accurately depicts the state of the economy for all of us anymore. It means corporations are healthy, but that’s not putting money in the pockets of the working and middle class. And that’s who the Democratic Party is supposed to be looking out for.

To be fair, the GOP didn’t get it, either. They were intent on crowning another Bush, or at least Marco Rubio … more of the same, stale leadership from a party that hasn’t had a new idea in a generation.

To his credit, Trump got it. He knew that message of economic populism would play well across the Rust Belt, the Plains, and everywhere else where the United States used to make things that people could buy. And there was nothing the party could do to stop him. That his proposed plans to bring prosperity back to the working class are mostly nonsensical is not the point. His was the voice that resonated.

The Democrats saw their own economic populist emerge during the primary campaign in Bernie Sanders, but because they were more intent on making history than making progress, the “democratic socialist” was shoved aside by the Democratic National Committee. Rigged? It depends on how you define it, but this much is clear: When it was supposed to be impartial, the DNC did everything it could to promote Hillary Clinton and marginalize Sanders. And this, while the crowd was clamoring outside their window, screaming to be heard on economic inequality. The DNC simply slammed that window shut. They didn’t want to hear it.

Let me say this about Hillary Clinton: She’s not the monster she’s portrayed as by right-wing and alt-right media. The origins of the right’s hate for her, going back to 1992, is rooted simply in sexism. She overstepped her bounds as a woman, and that was still alive and well this year. Some of the memes circulated about her on social media would mortify any decent person.

But she also had some very real problems, ethical issues that extend well beyond sexism. And her inability to deal honestly and forthrightly about using her personal server while acting as secretary of state (as well as the act itself) was a major problem for many people who were otherwise inclined to back her.

What’s more, Hillary had simply grown stale, even to many good Democrats. Twenty-five years in the national political spotlight is a long time, and the political landscape is awfully different than it was in 1992. It’s also true that if you spend a long-enough time in that spotlight, some of the things you said in another era will undoubtedly come back to haunt you. Finally, given how easy it was to cast her as a corporatist in a year when the soul of Democrats was aching over income inequality, there just wasn’t enough enthusiasm for her candidacy to fire voters up in numbers…

…Unless they were acting out against Donald Trump. I’m not going to rehash the ugliness and unprecedented rhetoric of the entire election in this post, but even as both sides lobbed grenades at each other, the fact was the one side was on fire, while the other side was more like those warm embers in the grill you used to tailgate before the game. By the time the game is over, you can feel the heat, but it’s just not hot enough to get things cooking again.

And that was it: game over.

To be clear, I have absolutely no faith that Trump will be able to deliver on anything he’s promised. In many cases, that’s good, but wouldn’t it be nice to have an industrial economy here again, so McDonald’s doesn’t have to justify not paying people $15 an hour to drop French fries into a vat of boiling oil? And the hateful rhetoric he employed, promising a return America back to the dark ages of social justice, is going to linger for a long time now that the worst elements of society believe they have a champion.

But Hillary Clinton’s loss is not a loss for America in and of itself. We would’ve undoubtedly been in safer, more competent hands, but she was not a change agent in a year when both sides demanded one. We are long overdue for a woman’s chance to lead from the White House, but she was simply not the right vessel, no matter how aggressively she was foisted upon voters. The Republicans swallowed the poison pill; they had no choice. The Democrats simply managed to forestall the inevitable. They whistled past the graveyard.