i think he's right that the focus on identity was an error, but the reason he's right is that the messenger was terrible. everybody knows that hillary clinton is a racist, chistian homophobe. the evidence is paramount. you can't just take this lady with this long history of racist and homophobic polices and statements and then expect that she'll sway votes through uttering pleasantries. in the end, the votes did not appear. that is, the blacks and the gays - and even the women, too - saw through the charade.

the solution is to stop running racists, and to be more inclusive.

the tweaks are minor:

1) instead of not talking about blacks and gays and women, the next candidate should single out whites, too. and, in many of the same ways. you'll note if you're paying attention that barack obama usually did that, probably because he didn't approach his focus groups with the explicit attempt of pandering to coloured minorities.

2) don't run a fucking racist in the first place.

http://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/12/16/13924742/mark-lilla-identity-politics-liberalism-trump-clinton-race-2016-election