Perspective of a politically active millennial who voted Clinton in a solid blue state.

In this midst of the fervorous anxiety and confusion, it must be recognized that much of the blame falls on Hillary Clinton’s failure to effectively energize the 18 to 28 voter base. They perceived her as out of touch and inauthentic, especially after months of a grueling primary during which she and the pro-Clinton establishment burned numerous bridges.

Out of Touch with Youth

While Bernie Sanders, the champion of millennials, simply took to a podium and shouted about failed American policies, Clinton pursued an alternate avenue to attract young voters.

A well documented example of her antics is a Snapchat video which features a “chillary” Clinton water bottle followed by a front-cam shot of her face as she says “I’m just chillin’ in cedar rapids.”

Within hours, the video went viral in the meme-generating, mocking sort of way.

Not too long after, her website listed several ways that she is “just like your abuela.” The immediate reaction was a nationally trending hashtag #notmyabuela, whereby young Latinos rightfully critiqued a white millionaire’s failure to hit the target. Such pandering reaffirms the erroneous belief that the college-aged community bases votes around superficial criteria, like hashtags, emojis and Pokemon Go.

Perceived Inauthenticity

Young voters, not yet jaded by years of moderacy and party elitism, look toward charismatic, authentic figures. They rightfully felt as if there were two Hillarys, one who is a self-proclaimed progressive, and one who – the very next day, “pleads guilty to being a moderate.” Trump was no doubt a sham, whose demagoguery masked his dishonesty and inauthenticity, but his followers genuinely believed in him. The lean-Democrat millennial bloc did not believe in her and largely tuned her out as soon as Sanders lost.

Young voters listened as Clinton talked about the need for prison reform on the campaign trail, only to see fat cat fundraiser footage in which she not only dismissed a young black woman, who was concerned with mass incarceration, but also stated, “Let’s get back to the issues that matter.”

Resentment of the pro-Clinton establishment

To many Sanders supporters like myself, it was painful to see that the pro-Clinton establishment had forgotten that we young voters, the future of the Democratic party, even existed. Too eager were they to support Clinton’s smug “it’s her turn now” coronation, while actively squelching dissent. Here are some examples among the many which illustrate that dynamic:

• Several hundred super delegates preemptively pledged their support for Hillary Clinton before any state’s race even began.

• Many super delegates refused to change their vote, such as the case of Gov. Howard Dean, who remained Clintonpledged, even after Sanders received 86 percent of the vote in Vermont.

• CNN experts debased Sanders as an angry, old socialist. The Washington Post published a piece supposedly debunking Sander’s placement in civil rights photos, despite the fact that the photographer repeatedly confirmed his identity.

• Wikileaks proved that CNN correspondent Donna Brazile was feeding debate questions to the Clinton campaign ahead of time.

The Clinton establishment reverberated a message stated by its actual campaign: “disqualify [Bernie] then unite the party later.” After months of disrespecting the youth and failing to display a sense of genuine character, she evidently failed to unite the party later, but of course, millennials, will be branded as lazy crybaby, Bernie-cultists, who wanted nothing more than for Donald Trump to become President of the United States.