Just on the critical side, the 2016 polls were predicting a coin flip. It was only hopeful leftees that somehow interpreted a one or two point spread as an easy victory.

But this phrase was brilliant:

". . . but without listening to the real lives and stories of people who are different from us, how can we ever develop policy which will make a figure like Trump less attractive?"

I could write a Medium article on this, but I won't because it'll only get a few reads. But to summarize, my take is that we are seeing the erosion of the middle class--and these Trump supporters are not seeing much future for themselves and their children. USA is returning to humanity's natural social order where 2% are wealthy and powerful, 13% are OK but subservient to the 2%, and 85% live in dire poverty. Those numbers are from Orwell's 1984.