Mike Davis : Reflections on the election

11. Since the 2004 insurgency of Howard Dean,
progressive Democrats have fought uphill against party regulars for a
full 50-state strategy that invests in base building in otherwise
gerrymandered red congressional districts. The failure of the DNC, for
example, to make a major commitment to Texas Democrats — a state that is
now majority minority — has long been an open scandal.

The Clinton campaign, flush with funds but obviously short on brains,
compounded a disastrous strategy. For example, she failed to visit
Wisconsin after the Convention despite warnings that Scott Walker’s
fired-up followers were fully enlisted behind Trump. Likewise she
disdained Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s advice that she set up a
“rural council” such as had served Obama so well in his Midwestern
primary and presidential campaigns. In 2012, for example, he managed to
add 46 percent of small town vote to his urban majority in Michigan and
41 percent in Wisconsin. Her desultory results were 38 percent and 34
percent, respectively.