The way I look at it, Clinton did it to herself. The left made out Trump to be the devil. You know the old saying, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. In the end, it was a choice of the devil vs. Satan. Neither a sane choice. Two things, first one could go back to February of 2016 when a poll came out that stated 56% of all Americans, the key phrase is all Americans, wanted the Democrats to nominate someone else other than Hillary Clinton. But who won the Democratic nomination or whom the Democrat's picked wasn't up to all Americans. It was up to that parties base, registered Democrats who made up 30% of the electorate. Perhaps they failed to realize that 100% of the electorate votes in the general election, not just 30%.
Number two is way back in January and February of 2016 Hillary was still seen negatively by over 50% of the total electorate. That was completely over shadowed by Trump being viewed at a 60% negativity and rarely was America's negative view of Hillary talked about. It was there. A few months later, July Gallup came out with an article stating 25% of all Americans disliked both candidates. More important and over looked was that it stated 54% of all independents disliked both candidates.
One in Four Americans Dislike Both Presidential Candidates | Gallup
But independents have no say in whom is nominated, but they do in the general election. Also come July, the same time as this poll came out, third party candidates, Johnson and Stein were drawing between 12-15% of the vote. They ended up with 6%. That also spoke of the dislikes.
The thing is Clinton supporters see nothing wrong with her as Trump supporters see nothing wrong with him. Both are like that old Missouri Mule with blinders on. Clinton supporters can't understand how anyone could dislike her and the same holds true for Trump. Neither side could understand folks like me who detested both candidates that I, we would vote for someone we knew had no chance of winning rather than vote for one or the other of the two major party candidates. The numbers were all over the place which showed more or less total dissatisfaction among American voters as a whole of both candidates.
The most interesting exit poll I saw showed that 50%, half of all Trump voters was an anti-Clinton voter. In other words any Tom, Dick or Harry would have done, as long as the last name wasn't Clinton. Their votes wasn't necessarily for Trump, it was against Clinton. Now without Clinton around, they are now beginning to come out against Trump. You can see it in his job approval/disapproval numbers. Especially among independents who went for Trump during the election 46-42 with 12% voting third party. Today only 39% of independents approve of Trump, 50% disapprove and their disapprove number is growing. Without Clinton around to show their disapproval, it is beginning to come down on solely on Trump.
