This afternoon Hillary Clinton publicly conceded the election to President Elect Donald Trump. The speech was eery and heartbreaking, considering that in 2008 she conceded her first presidential bid with a reflection on the "80 million cracks" in the glass ceiling voters had left- paving the way for a female to be elected president.The shocking fact was: even a second punch at that gendered glass ceiling was not enough to elect the first female as President of the United States. "Someday, someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now," she said.

Clinton abstained from posing the obvious question: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN and instead chose to focus on thanking her team and supports, emphasizing the need for a peaceful transition of power, and turning the stage towards Trump to make up for his past xenophobic, misogynistic, racist comments and to prove that he can president of EVERYONE, not just white working class voters. "We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead," Hillary Clinton said, emphasizing the need for a peaceful transition of power.

What does this mean for the Democratic Party? There is a lot of speculation that over the next four years, now under a Republican presidency and Republican controlled House and Senate, that the Democratic will be forced to go through an identity change. As we receive stunned, half-processed remarks from President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, it's obvious that none of the party's leaders were prepared for last night's results.

It'll be interesting to see over the next four years if the Democratic party becomes more alt-left and makes a desperate attempt to appeal to young millennials and minorities, as opposed to its centrist approach with Hillary Clinton it took on this election, all but desperately attempting to silence the "radical" Bernie Sanders campaign.

More importantly, what does this mean for Hillary Clinton and female politicians in general? There's a fear that this will only discourage a major party from attempting to break social ceilings with their candidates and play it safer, not more experimental. Perhaps we will receive a new Democratic party that appropriates Trump's populist approach and seeks to ignite the masses with a candidate that speaks to working-class Regan Democrats?

What Clinton's concession speech shows us, if anything, is that the Democratic Party is stunned and about to do a lot of much-needed soul searching. As much of America is about to do as well...