2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Where was the sympathy for Bush voters [View all]R B Garr
(17,379 posts)past March when it was mathematically impossible for him to win was because they were hoping the FBI would indict Hillary. So it was obvious to any astute observer who wasn't on his bandwagon that he had motives beyond the goodly pureness of his contrived message. He was an opportunist who used divisive tactics to gain an edge over a candidate who could not compete with his endless personal smears so as not to alienate his supporters. It was so ridiculous that any time she dared to defend herself, there were even more accusations against her that were really just too dumb and conspiratorial for words.
Neither you nor I can interview those 80,000 or so people who decided this election, but you can look at the voting margins and see that virtually ALL of those 3rd party/Independent margins would have put Hillary over the edge. So it wasn't just the Reagan Democrats. There were organized movements from the Bernie diehards who convinced people to vote against the Democrat. It was and still is a very divisive campaign and "movement". Now look what we have.