This is well put. My sister is one of the people described in this post. To her, it was simply inconceivable that anyone could vote for Trump after hearing the offensive things he said. I found some of the things Trump said stupid and offensive, but that doesn't automatically mean the other candidate is better. I live in Ohio, and we were bombarded with 24x7 commercials from both parties. The Hillary ones focused on one thing and one thing only: "Trump is a meanie, look at all the nasty things he said!". There was no focus at all on any issues that regular folks might care about, just pounding the message into everyone's head that Trump said offensive things. They just failed to make a good case FOR Hillary, and failed to make a case against Trump other than "he said offensive things!". That just doesn't cut it, and in the end Ohio went easily for Trump. Many on the left including many on this forum have tried to blame people being secretly racist as the reason for Hillary losing, but that's just bullshit; unless you want to believe the same people who voted by a wide margin for a black president now all of a sudden won't vote for his selected successor because they secretly love racist Trump.
poofyhairguy, you're the first one I've seen articulate that the left has come to grips with many other possible drivers of Trump votes but has yet to come to grips with the PC backlash. It wasn't the one driving factor, but it was one of many factors that led to Hillary's defeat. In the aftermath of the election, many democrats attribute the rust belt defeats to racism of white voters, but in doing so are just further alienating the swing voters. Just because I'm white and didn't vote for Hillary doesn't mean I'm racist, sexist or whatever other politically incorrect label you want to attach. Maybe I held my nose and voted for a candidate I didn't like because the alternative was a candidate I didn't trust.