I love all you brother and sister pundits and commentators out there. But those of you still stuck on the "genius" Trump analysis and the need to "understand what he understood" aren't paying attention. He runs on pure instinct. And is kind of stupid. And...
he can't run an organization to save his life. And many of his impulses are really self-destructive. What happened was he got very lucky. First, the system was rigged by gerrymandering so that the GOP could win the presidency with fewer votes than the Dems (as happened.)
Further, biases in the FBI and political games in the Congress undercut the Clinton campaign. And Clinton, while a good enough candidate to beat Trump by 3 million votes, did not mobilize voters as Obama had. And there was the small matter of having outside help.
Not just the Russians, but yes, the Russians. And also Jill Stein and Gary Johnson (and the destructive impact on Dem cohesion of the Bernie movement). And the media was not wise to Trump's games, over-covered Hillary's flaws and under-covered his.
What Trump got was the GOP base--that was itself mobilized by distaste for Clinton and Obama--but he actually got a smaller share of the vote than Romney had gotten. In other words there was no "genius" to Trump's victory nor did he "get" the electorate better than say, Romney.
Lots of commentators out there have been writing for months about how vital it is to realize what "Trump tapped into." What he tapped into was circumstance...circumstances very unlikely to be repeated in 2020. It is more important to understand that.
Further, it is a mistake for Dems to focus on playing to the "Roseanne" crowd when their real chance for winning lies in getting young voters to vote and mobilizing the women and minorities (and people who can read) who have been alienated by Trump.
