2016 Postmortem

But voters in key states LIKE them for many of the reasons I've already expressed - such as the fact that the Republicans appeal to their basest instincts.

Other reasons:

1. Hillary took on the Republicans, but she also had to spend a lot of her time and breath fighting off Bernie Sanders and many of his supporters her were yelling very loudly for a very long time that SHE was as bad as they were.
2. She also had to fight off the media and Comey;
3. Voter suppression

And, by the way, she didn't lose "so big." She actually won the popular vote by millions and only lost the key swing states by razor thin margins - and probably would have won those handily had minority voters been prevented from voting or having their votes counted.