The truth is, Hillary Clinton was probably the worst Democratic candidate in history, for reasons about which most here would agree. To do worse than Hillary, the dems would have had to run Freddie Kreuger for president and Michael Myers for Vice. (As they're the party of abortion absolutists, they might be tempted to do this.) Even Hillary was able to win the popular vote, and she lost only because she ran a terrible campaign and forgot about the electoral college. Trump's victory was made possible by a few tens of thousands of votes in three or four unexpected takeaway states that cracked the "blue wall."
The Democrats are hyper energized by sheer hate. That may backfire once voters realize that the hate is now unhinged, and its targets extend far beyond Donald Trump. But that's a heckuva thing for us to be counting on.
You are right about that with respect to committed Democrats. But I think that an argument that will resound with Independents is,
"Do you really want to give the power of government to people consumed by hate?"