This isn't a new or sexy observation. It's accepted wisdom among the data journalist class, for instance. I did see David Roberts expound on this recently in a way I think is correct, and didn't think about as much until then.
Apropos of nothing, here's something I've been thinking about. It's widely accepted now that lots of actors in the 2016 election acted the way they did because everybody -- *everybody* -- assumed Clinton would win. That is the lens through which the election makes sense.But the complementary point, which hasn't been aired as much, is that *everyone planned to use Clinton as their punching bag*.
GOP would use total opposition & endless BS investigations to please its base. Every liberal seeking to establish their lefty bona fides would use Clinton-bashing to show how anti-Establishment and brave they are. mainstream media would use Clinton-bashing to establish their independence & objectivity. right-wing media would bash her to keep the troops in a frenzy. It was all laid out, like a script. "You work your ass off to get elected so we can use you to send identity signals." She was to be everyone's patsy, everyone's Big Bad, everyone's convenient punching bag -- across the spectrum! Problem is, none of those groups could restrain themselves. They all laid into caricaturing and demonizing her too early, too relentlessly. They overshot ... and she lost! This prop that everyone was using to hold themselves up vanished.
And it's left behind this amusing vacuum, a Hillary-shaped hole that is baffling & vexing everyone. Who are righties supposed to hate on? Who's the Great Satan now? They don't have one! That's why they are still, no kidding, obsessing over Hillary investigations on Fox. Who is the Great Establishment Satan for the Bernie-ites now? Who are they to define themselves against? They don't really know! Who is the mainstream media supposed to beat up now to prove that they're not liberal? They don't really know! Hillary was to be the receptacle, carrying and embodying the anxieties of a whole range of groups and demographics involved in US politics. But everybody overdid it, and now she's gone, and there's a giant vacuum where all that anxiety used to be focused.
Obviously I wouldn't wish our current situation on anyone, but it's hard not to find some grim amusement in the confusion and stumbling about that has ensued after Hillary disappeared. Without the Great Satan, the shared punching bag, everyone's left to their own devices. It's even causing some people in some of those groups to look in the mirror, and what fun is that? It's hard not to think that America's collective id wants, needs, Hillary back. She gave everyone someone to blame.
Yeah, you can't really understand the behavior of whole segments of those who control the media wheel without noticing that they expected Clinton to win. Nothing new about that. But Clinton continues to receive routine negative coverage from all them - in a way you've never seen for other recent failed nominees for president - because she fills a void they haven't been able to replicate yet. This is most obvious on Fox, where near nightly they behave like Clinton is the scandal-plagued president of the United States, but it's also quite apparent in progressive activists who continue to spend inordinate amounts of time relitigating the 2016 primary and Clinton bashing as a means to try to drift the Democratic party leftward. It explains why there was a literal countdown clock on how long it took Clinton to respond to the Harvey Weinstein scandal on CNN, but active Republican leadership, including president of the United States, received no such pressured coverage regarding the actual finance chair of the RNC. Clinton continues to fill a role she had before even though she not in office or running for one.