Rush talked about this very topic and the very New York Times opinion piece this article cites. “The Democrat Paper of Record” as Rush would call them. The Democrats were going to target the super wealthy, the super poor and the urban hipsters. They gave up on representing labor and the middle class.
That’s where Trump came in, it is doubtful he did not know of the Democrats’ strategy. That’s why he targeted working class, the middle class and minorities who were in that group. He took the upper Midwest and won the presidency.