Mockney
Not the only poster to be named Poster of the Year
It was indeed a perfect storm. Any other scenario not involving Trump/Brexit sentiment, Comey's intervention, Wikileaks, Putin, and KremlinGate, and Hillary wouldn't won comfortably imo. The events of the two weeks or so before the election clearly nudged Trump across the finish line.
Even then, with all those factors, I've still a sneaking suspicion that it could've played out differently on another day. A million little Ian Malcolmy variables aligned to give Trump the win. If the string theory hypothesis that every decision creates another reality is true, I'd wager Hillary won in most of them. We just annoyingly happen to live in the one Trump did.
I'm very aware I could be projecting in desperation, but I don't see the Dems in anyway near the same crisis state as their Labour equivlanets here. A decent, likeable, oratorically competent candidate in 2020, and they should be right back in the game. The only equivalence is the ideological naivety/apathy of the fringe left in opposing anything politically central. But while we'll likely need a crushing Tory victory to get them back onside, the utter debacle of Trump has surely already got the Sarandon-esque rebels willing to fall back behind the first semi-reasonable Democrat.