I agree with the author that there is a perception problem that goes far beyond any policy positions that could have been proposed by either Sanders or Clinton. The GOP has won the hearts of the anti-government, anti-taxation populace despite the economic misery they unleash when they are in power. There is a mindset that people would prefer to be impoverished and without health care rather than to pay for public and social services because they believe that some benevolent caretaker (usually a church organization) will arrive to take care of their needs. That is what occurs when half of the population is below average intelligence.

Good assessment.

'As much as Mr. Trump won the election in Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton lost it. Her campaign, which prided itself on employing all the data wizards and ground game gurus money can buy, did not do nearly enough to lock down the upper Midwest, particularly Wisconsin and Michigan, and instead treated those states as a given.

Paul Soglin is the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin’s capital city, in cerulean Dane County. He supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, and said he talked at least once a week with a field organizer from the Sanders campaign during the primary. But once Mrs. Clinton locked up the nomination, it was radio silence from the Clinton campaign.

“Since I first held elected office in the early ’70s, virtually every presidential election, I’ve been contacted, either by the candidate or by a staffer,” he told me. “I’m not saying this to say I’m important. But the point is, not only wasn’t she in the state, but I never got a call, a contact, anything after the primary.”'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/opinion/campaign-stops/not-your-grandmothers-wisconsin.html?

And sad.

jobs are scarce, entertainment is scarce. services is scarce.