This may seem petty. I don't care.
Clinton supporters, myself included at least some of the time, were part of the problem. There are perhaps several reasons for this, but as I have not seen this particular point made, I have decided to use this space to make it.
Those who did not support Clinton also committed this particular error, of course.
My irritation began during the summer when I was visiting my family in Michigan. There were signs for several politicians who were running for local office, and I noticed that, the politicians who were male were identified by their last names, and the politicians who were female were identified by their first names.
Throughout this election season, Clinton has been identified as her first name, at least by non-journalists. I don't know if journalists were generally referring to her by her first name; I get almost all of my news from NPR and if memory serves me correctly, NPR journalists referred to her by her last name.
Identifying Clinton by her first name is ironic at best, hypocritical and careless at worst. How are we to claim that we stand for equality if we don't use this simple form of equality? We didn't need to use her first name because she is the first woman to run for president; that fact was clear from the beginning. And we didn't need to use her first name because her husband held office for two terms; he has not been president since early 2000.
It may not have been the most egregious of errors, but it was an error. Let's own it.