Not to mention running a terrible campaign that spent all of its time hanging out with megadonors instead of actually visiting the swing states that decide elections...
But the other half of the reason was that I kind of figured Hilary had it in the bag. She was simply better resourced in terms of money and in terms of the groups and individuals who were supporting her. How could she not win? Especially against Trump? Sure, she made some mistakes along the way, but Trump also mocked a disabled reporter during one of his campaign appearances. One could argue that he made just as many mistakes, if not more.
I don't really think Trump had any unfair advantages one could consider substantial (if anything he had a lot of disadvantages) nor do I believe that Hilary made any mistakes that were really damaging to her campaign. Its nuts, but the most convincing explanation I can think of is the weirdest and most esoteric one.
Just can't ignore those spooky synchronicities.
That he was a showman helped the memes. But I encourage you to consider mundane things like maybe people were tired of status quo globalism and willing to take a bitter pill to try and fix it.
I am reminded of a comedian's favorite response to this statement.
> Not all trump supporters are racist, but ALL racists are trump supporters.
I think a lot of people were just done with the current political system which had been failing them for generations and wanted an outsider to come in and shake (if not break) up the system. Sanders gained a huge following attracting massive crowds and passionate supporters for the same reason. People wanted actual change but the DNC wasn't having it so they did everything they could to undermine sanders before the primary. Republicans threw everyone they could think of into the race.
Trump wasn't a politician, didn't act like one, and no one in power wanted him to be elected. His election meant that I lost a lot of faith in Americans, but I gained a lot of faith in our electoral system. People can vote in someone even when the most powerful don't want them to.
Hell we even learned from leaked documents her campaign instructed the major networks to focus more on Trump as they thought he would be the easiest candidate for her to beat.
Likewise, her campaign had some phenomenal missteps, like never visiting a fairly rural swing state because they just assumed (wrongly) that she would win, while wining and dining megadonors in states that would never have voted for Trump like California.
Her and president Obama's obvious disdain for rural people (as evidenced by the "bitter clingers" and "basket of deplorables" quips among other incidents) made democratic establishment politicians rather disliked.
Personally, I think there are quite a few democrats who could have beaten Trump in 2016.
Trump nearly beat Biden in 2020, and he would have beaten any other Democrat candidate that year, which overwhelmingly points to it not being Russian interference as a major influence. Everyone knew what Trump was by the 2020 election and he still attracted more votes than Barack Obama got in either election (and Obama was a widely popular President).
I made a habit of trying to count broken campaign promises starting in the Clinton years, and it is pretty much universal that presidents over-promise during the campaign and do the opposite once they get into office. I haven't really kept accurate numbers, but it certainly wasn't unique to trump by any means.
Saying everyone breaks some campaign promises is like saying that everyone lies - there is an enormous range.
But what makes me less likely to trust Trump's claims and promises is his consistent denial of claims he made previously that he no longer wishes to make. It's hard to trust someone when they change positions and deny that they had a different positon. Gives very We were always at war with Eastasia vibes.
That assertion is unlikely to be meaningful, IME. Specific politicians are more and less credible in specific ways. To say 'all are not credible' is no more true or meaningful than saying 'all are credible'. Off the top of my head: All food contains water, but that tells us almost nothing about any food.