Here is the thing, and it is undeniable, and right wing strategists won't make much of an effort to deny it, and the more open ones will flat out tell you, the core base of the republican party is made up of racists. Disenfranchised southern voters who can be relied on, regardless of political affiliation, to vote along racial lines.
This is the 20% deplorables Hillary mentioned and which I think is actually an under representation of the party base. Before there were Evangelicals, before there were supply side sycophants, the GOP could rely on racists. Less than a hundred years ago, the Ku Klux Klan were able to run as a ticket in places in the Southern US and win the majority of electable positions.
Based on Trumps early turnout numbers it looks like he tapped into this base since Reagan (who was virulently racist through the entirety of his presidency), but that still isn't what gave him the edge.
Hillary and the democrats lost this election, and may have lost a generation of voters, from organized labour.
I think this the type of demographic shift not seen since the Dixie Crat era.
Without a coalition of organised labour in key battleground states, the co-opting of say the Latino vote which I previously thought was most crucial looks positively unimportant.
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