The question has been asked and answered several times.  In an attempt at self-diagnosis, the media has theorized about why the perfect, most qualified candidate in history lost to a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic deplorable.  They are still missing the correct answers.  Here are five facts and perceptions the media continues to overlook.

The Black Vote

One of the biggest aspects of Hillary Clinton’s loss that the media is only now recognizing is the million or so African Americans who stayed home.  Barack Obama won 93% of the black vote in 2012, Hillary received 88%.  That was the lowest percent in this demographic since the last white Democrat to run and lose in 2004.  An inconvenient truth for the DNC is that after losing two elections in a row against Bush, about 1 million new African American voters came out to vote for the first African American candidate. Then they disappeared. It was the largest demographic shift from 2012 to 2016. Nothing significant has changed in the DNC platform in 20 years.  Obama successfully played the race card, Clinton had no such luck with the gender card.

A Flawed Candidate

Part of the reason the gender card did not work is that Hillary Clinton was not what many women wanted to be representative of the historical first female President.  Clinton was flawed from the start.  Anyone looking at the email scandal could see that she had violated the law.  Democrats could justify voting for Clinton because the FBI refused to recommend an indictment, but even then Comey’s statement was basically that Clinton was too incompetent to be a criminal or hold a government job.

Clinton was the chosen one.  But unlike Obama, she knew it and ran on it.  Obama at least bothered to have a message.  Even during the debates, Hillary seemed to be scared to stray from memorized platitudes and applause lines.  It didn’t help when she experienced public health issues or lashed out at critics.  Throughout the whole thing she acted as though she was entitled to the Presidency and offended if anyone didn’t agree.

Of course, most people who would be discouraged to vote for her because of her criminality or entitlement were already #neverhillary.  Cheating in the primary, controlling the media, and all of the filth that came out of the Podesta emails swayed independents more than the blind DNC is willing to admit.  Even when Sanders came out and endorsed Clinton, it was not enough to change the fact that she had canceled the revolution.  More people stayed home in 2016 than voted.  The crowds that belonged to Bernie Sanders did not follow Hillary Clinton.

Third Parties Failed

The Clinton campaign has lashed out at third party voters since the end of the campaign. But Gary Johnson voters did not have a significant effect on the election.  If you think Gary Johnson’s 3% was anything significant, I would remind you that third party votes have been 2-3% since the last Clinton era when third parties took 10% in ’96 and almost 20% in ’92.  2016 should have been the best opportunity for a third party to make an impact because nobody liked the two main choices.  Consistently in polls, Gary Johnson pulled from both parties.

Gary Johnson was a flawed candidate.  A liberal Republican pretending to be a Libertarian, Johnson was joined by liberal Republican Bill Weld who spent more time praising and defending Clinton than advancing Johnson.

Gary Johnson himself was a clown who demonstrated often that he had no foreign policy intelligence and was probably high during the entire campaign.  Libertarians selected Johnson and pressed forward with no intention of winning, but hoping and praying that someone would realize they existed.  2020 may change their fortunes, but 2016 can objectively be seen as nothing other than a massive failure.  They gave it a Ralph Nader effort and walked away with the same result.

Not All Republicans Are Alt-Right

When Hillary Clinton labeled a large portion of Republicans as “deplorables”, I called that her “47%” moment.  Democrats made a huge miscalculation when they tried to substitute substance with sectarian attacks.  The problem is most Republicans do not believe that they are racist, sexist, bigoted, and many do not even consider themselves homophobic. That is probably because they aren’t.  Sure, some are.  The KKK, who Trump denounced 14 times, are all those things.  But the vast majority of Republicans view the KKK through the historical lens of their past involvement with the Democrat party.  The vast majority of Republicans feel no connection to the KKK and are offended when they are lumped together.

The vast majority of Republicans are also smarter than the media thought.  When Trump said Mexico was sending rapists and murderers, Republicans understood that he was talking about illegal immigrants and simply making the point that scientists, doctors and engineers are not crossing our border illegally.  Republicans also read through his poor communication skills to understand that he was talking about illegal immigrants and not Mexicans in general.  When celebrities called Trump Hitler, many Republicans rolled their eyes remembering they said the same thing about Romney, Bush, and others.  Trump was the beneficiary of generation so over inundated by superlatives and hyperbole that it has lost any affect.

When Democrats even today toss out insane metaphors and analogies, most recently how Trump’s cabinet selection has been Stalin-esque, sane people roll their eyes.  That is a big part of why Trump won.

The “Alt-Left” and Right Anger

What do you call it when someone refuses services to a particular group based on their beliefs?  What do you call it when one group that hates another group takes to the streets and destroys private property whenever they don’t get their way?  What do you call it when it is OK for one group to discriminate, but not the other?  These are the perceptions that drove the angry vote.  When celebrities, professors, and Wall Street try to marginalize conservatives or label them as dangerous, that drives conservatives to the polls.

The anger vote has been a narrative in the media since Trump won the primary.  The anger vote was significant, but the causes have been misdiagnosed.  The media narrative seemed to equate the anger vote with white supremacists and fringe members of the Right.  Even now, leftists like Jon Stewart and Michael Moore are correcting the Left’s perception on what drove rightwing anger.  It wasn’t simply a case of a bunch of racists not wanting a black or female President.  It had very little to do with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage.  It had far more to do with reaction to destructive policies hurting our country and the “Alt-Left”, AKA SJWs.

Republicans voted for Trump mainly because of failed policies.  Obamacare drove insurance rates through the roof.  After 8 years of reported national recovery, people were still waiting for their own recovery.  Hillary Clinton listed two litmus tests for Supreme Court justices. They amounted to invalidating the 2nd amendment and legalizing all forms of abortion at all stages of a pregnancy.  We lost ground in every foreign engagement we involved ourselves in, including making ridiculous deals and ransom payments to Iran, consistently being embarrassed by Russia and China, losing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and rushing head first into messy entanglements in Syria, Libya, Egypt, and wherever else we could arm terrorists.

Perhaps the most Republican anger came at SJWs (Social Justice Warriors).  Again, these are just observations of the sentiments that were expressed by the Right.  The feeling was that professors created safe spaces to protect primarily liberal students from primarily conservatives students.  Conservative views were oppressed in Universities in demonstrable ways.  Anyone who disagreed with Obama or Clinton were too quickly labeled racist.  Eventually, the term “Alt-Right” was coined and used as a catch all to quickly dismiss anyone who was angry at the Left.

For every 100 sincere Black Lives Matters protesters attempting to bring light to police brutality, there were another 100 paid by George Soros to smash windows and set cars on fire.  In fact, many BLM protesters turned out to be Occupy Wall Street protesters recycled.

It seemed as though the entire race war was scripted.  While black protesters hugged police officers in the streets and people sought healing, bussed in groups of community organizers chanted “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” and called for violence against police.  The angry Republicans were the ones sitting in their cars stopped on the highway by Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protesters.  Angry voters were driven by what should have been a charge of indifference, but was instead over-inflated into a charge of all historical racial and financial injustice.

Occupy Wall Street, the original Soros funded mob, was no better.  Americans across the country who still believe in the American Dream were being accused of hoarding and oppressing these liberal tent dwellers. Yet the movement collapsed in on itself and the DNC put forward a candidate who made $500,000 an hour giving speeches to Wall Street. It is no wonder American workers voted for Trump.

The Result

In the end, the election came down to two candidates who were so scary that neither side could afford to back down.  Trump didn’t win because half the country is racist.  He won because half the country was scared of Hillary Clinton, scared of her policies, and scared of how the SJWs already viewed them.  Desiring everything Hillary Clinton did not represent, and regardless of what Trump did represent, half the country voted #neverhillary and for the only viable alternative they had.  Trump wasn’t a great communicator.  He didn’t have to be.  All he had to say was “I’m going to make America great again, and I’m not Hillary Clinton”.