>IMHO people need to stop sifting electorate tea leaves looking for rationalizations when the reason for the loss rests very close to home.

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>Interestingly, in "The Prince" Machiavelli discusses taking loyalists for granted vs granting favors to those whose support you seek. Clinton lavished attention on her loyalist echo chamber while Trump engaged positively with communities that have not voted Republican in a generation but ended up giving him the win. QED. You'd think Podesta would have all the Machiavelli stuff down pat, but HRC's get-out-and-impress-the-punters campaign was an amateur screw-up. Towards the end I'm told she even had to cancel rallies when hardly anybody turned up..

Not disputing any of that.
Here's my point - again:
There are 31 republican governors now and there are 31 state houses controlled by republicans.
The graph shows that red/blue gap to be widening.
For the first time that I can recall republicans simultaneously control more state houses, governor's mansions, seats in congress, seats in the senate and seats on the supreme court.
And they control the White House
For many years before Reagan you could have said about the democrats

Something is going on.