Shortly after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, a book by the name of Primary Colors was published. Written anonymously (the author was later revealed as reporter Joe Klein), it was a fictional treatment of the Clintons as Bill ran for president in 1992. The novel showed how the Clintons had descended from idealists active in the 1972 McGovern campaign to the pragmatic, tawdry, couple they came to be. In one revealing paragraph, the author captured the essence of the Clintons: “‘Libby, you said it yourself,’ Susan [the Hillary character] said coolly. ‘We were young. We didn’t know how the world worked. Now we know.'”

That was the image that plagued Hillary throughout the 2016 campaign. Everybody knew that she was so pragmatic that she appeared to have no bedrock principles. So when she announced she was switching from supporting the TPP trade treaty to opposing it, nobody believed her.

They certainly didn’t believe her in the Rust Belt. They were convinced that as soon as she was elected, she’d make some superficial changes and sign the TPP. That’s what cost her Wisconsin-Ohio-Michigan-Pennsylvania, and with them the election. When voters don’t believe what you’re saying about things that affect their livelihood, you get WOMPed.

Don’t be taken in by the fact that Hillary won the popular vote. She won big in states where Donald Trump didn’t campaign. In those states, she was still Secretary Clinton. Where Trump did campaign, she was Corrupt Hillary. If Trump had campaigned, Corrupt Hillary would have gotten far less votes than Secretary Clinton did.