I think that for very many people, enough to cost Clinton the election, the choice to support Trump or to stay home came not from confusion or misinformation or racism or xenophobia but from the realization that Clinton is going to do absolutely nothing to help them, and that while Trump will probably not help them either, there is at least a chance he might. At one point he asked "what have you got to lose?" I think that's a line that resonated very well in the Midwest.
This obsession with fake news on the left is disturbing to me for two reasons. One, quite frankly, is the notion that fake news was only deployed by the right to hurt Clinton, and only being transmitted from "disreputable" news sites (with ties to Putin of course) across Facebook.
I recall the fake news about Bernie supporters throwing chairs in Nevada being broadcast on NPR, then in the evening NPR broadcasting that they knew it was fake (on on-the-media I believe) then the following morning, mentioning it again as if it were true.
The implication here is that if we could just keep all the news transmission in the hands of "responsible gatekeepers" in the media then fake news could be eliminated. But if NPR isn't a responsible gatekeeper, then who is?
Secondly I'm disturbed to watch my party, the party I want to see win elections, go down a navel gazing rabbit hole rather than addressing the very real fundamental structural problems with its operation.
How the least popular politician in America, clouded by scandal, became the Democratic nominee is a question the party should be asking. Why the party managed to disconnect so thoroughly with its base is a question that should be asking. How the party could run such lousy campaigns with such horrible management of resources not just at the presidential level but in congress at at the state level, that's something the party leadership needs to explain, and we who support the party need to demand accountability for.
If the Democratic party and Democratic supporters keep going off into the weeds and obsessing about things that aren't pertinent like "fake news" or sneering at all the xenophobic voters then they're going to keep on losing elections and the Republicans will have carte blanche to push whatever agenda they want.