But how could they have known the inner racist got activated in rust belt? The last MULaw poll which is gold standard in Wisconsin polling had Clinton +6. I am sure their internal polling said the same thing. This election was a fluke.
It wasn't a fluke. The rust belt flipped because of trade.
Like, why else would Hillary break with Obama on TPP? She clearly did for a reason. It even caused a little bit of tension between them at times. She wouldn't have done it if she didn't believe it was something incredibly important and necessary to win the election. She ran on Obamas third term but rejected his latest policy position.
Problem was she couldn't walk back her previous comments on it and no one believed her. No republican before trump was willing to offer an economic promise beyond tax cuts and Trump's trade and anti establishment angle made the difference.
Also Hillary's lack of campaigning really hurt. Even if you can win rural areas, visit them to limit the damage. Or atleast go to states that are +6 a few times before spending so much time in NY and California which were like +20