[peter12]

Trump has steadily eroded away all of the so-called barriers to his low-ceiling. Latinos have started voting for him, so have women.

People want to pretend that the Left has somehow solidified its position within a successful big-tent party that manages to appeal to both social libertarian and progressive fiscal voters at the same time. That is, people who value their moral autonomy, but want a sort of robust (although far less robust than the Reagan years) social safety net. This is probably partially true, but since the B. Clinton years, the Democrats have played a pretty tenuous balance act between satisfying coastal sophisticates and elites - the bankers, VCs, and college profs who almost uniformly vote Democrat - and trying to maintain a hold on blue-collar union members, blacks in general, Latino immigrants etc...

The problem is, that since the recession, these groups have developed strongly competitive interests. It is fairly obvious that Silicon Valley has benefited tremendously by assisting, and driving the transition towards a more automated, globalized economy. Well, where does that lead the more numerous people at the bottom? How does that affect the long-term prospects of a party devoted to upholding the interests of the former, but depending upon the electoral support of the latter? Perfect opportunity for a populist candidate to exploit.