Yes, Clinton won more votes than Trump. But good luck convincing Rust Belt voters...

[YoungDemCA]

They were the ones who decided the Electoral College outcome. And in the US, the Electoral College is what matters. Not the popular vote.

My own home state of California - the largest state in the country - rejected Donald Trump by a 30-point margin. I'm proud of that fact. But as far as I can tell, hell will freeze over before a Republican Party presidential nominee wins California - at least, at the rate things are going, and have been going for a few decades now. This is one of the safest of "blue" states. And consequently - and as a Californian myself, I hate this as much as anyone, but under our electoral system, it's the brutally unfair but undeniable truth - California is just about the last state that matters in a presidential election.

Again, I do not endorse or condone the Electoral College. I despise it as much as anyone. But the states who benefit the most from it are precisely the states that decide presidential elections. Including this year's. If we want a Democrat to win the Presidency, we would do well to remember this fact, rather than pat ourselves on the back that safely Democratic states continue to reject Republican nominees for President.

Whether the Democratic nominee wins 100% or 50.1% of the votes of my state, he or she will still win the same number of electoral votes from said state: 55. And the significant majority of states that are not safely "blue" - specifically, a majority of those states' voters and legislatures - are happy with this arrangement. That's the goddamn truth. Ignore it at your own peril.

[duffyduff]

1. The "goddamned truth" is bigotry is what carried the EC vote for Trump

Ignore that at your peril.

You undoubtedly have bought the LIE that the "economy" was why the white dude bigots in the rust belt voted for Trump. It has been soundly debunked. The Michael Moore/Bernie Sanders theory is BULLSHIT.

Hillary Clinton does not need to be mansplained and her millions of supporters insulted. She won the votes.

[Amishman]

6. There was a lot more going on than bigotry and sexism

Yes, it was likely a factor with some but there is no single explanation.

Am I on the right track guessing that you live in a major metro area and not one in a rust belt state?

If you actually listen to people in those areas you will hear a lot of different answers, all of them true. In my neck of the woods, I would not rank sexism/bigotry in the top 3 reasons why people around here voted how they did. (It might come in around #5 on that hypothetical list).

I suggest that a lot of the more irate members here pause and read the postmortem comments from members who actually live 'behind enemy lines'. There are a lot of bad assumptions and over generalizations flying around

[Adrahil]

9. I would rank bigotry as the number 1 issue and I DO live in a rust belt state.

Rust belt blue collar workers would have to have been cast iron STUPID to vote for Trump based on economics. The simple fact is that many white voters are terrified of where demographics are going in this country and want a kind of casual, velvet gloved, white supremacy.

[dionysus]

11. Since when is voters voting against their own self interest anything new?

It's been happening with regularity since reagan. This time around, sexism and rqcism played a part, but the same thing happened with gore and kerry, just for slightly different reasons.

Hillary's message wasnt easily digested enough by shallow and ignorant voters enough to overco.e the prejudice-de-jour of the voters.

[yardwork]

12. Rust belt voters who ranked the economy as their priority chose Hillary.

[NCTraveler]

2. "Clinton won more votes than Trump. But good luck convincing Rust Belt voters..."

I wouldn't try to convince a bunch of Trump Humpers that they are in the minority. You do make a point. A select group of white males won this election for Trump. It was about racism, sexism, and bigotry. They aren't an intellectual group. They vote with hate. Stop giving them a free pass. Clinton won those most concerned about the economy.

[duffyduff]

3. Thank you.

I am sick of the Michael Moore meme because it has been debunked over and over again.

We can't win over bigots, nor should we.

The focus needs to be on the one-half of the voting-age population who does not vote.

[NCTraveler]

4. "The focus needs to be on the one-half of the voting-age population who does not vote."

I hope someone gets that. I also hope people can see through those acting like they are on the left, telling us to cater to Trump voters, when it is known there are much larger blocks out there who are much more susceptible to our message.

[duffyduff]

5. I doubt this kind of patronizing advice would be spewed if our nominee had been a man.

There are literally tens of millions of non-voters out there, a huge chunk of them who are not bigots, who would vote Democratic, including many, many people in the "rust belt."

[YoungDemCA]

14. "The focus needs to be on the one-half of the voting-age population who does not vote." Agreed!

And which candidate in the Democratic primaries did a better job of appealing to and mobilizing people who never voted before, or had voted in the past but had stopped voting?

Hint: it wasn't the eventual nominee.

[MANative]

7. I'm convinced that the "rust" in the "Rust Belt" is primarily in their brains. n/t

[Adrahil]

10. You're not wrong. NT

[MFM008]

8. Racist sexist bigoted

I know. My dad's Pennsylvania family ..old style racist sexist bores. Women had a place.. they would die before vote for 1.
Men don't take orders from girls.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. That's the problem with the "No one should be allowed to critically examine HRC's campaign" line.

The fact of the matter is, she lost. Doesn't matter whether it's fair, doesn't matter whether she got more votes, doesn't matter if all these factors were lined up against her. I mean, those things DO matter, but not in the one big way that really counts; namely, on Jan 21 the person in the oval office is gonna be the person who won the contest as it is set up.

So of course she could have done better, just like Al Gore and John Kerry could have done better. They could have done better enough to actually win the part that counts.

If there's no room for improvement, we're screwed, because this level of performance isn't gonna cut it.