The post 2012 autopsy was a strategy for how to win the popular vote, not the electoral college, and do so in a way that keeps the big donors happy.
Turns out, the best strategy for winning the EC was to flip the big donors off.
I can't wait to see how the dividends of this pyrrhic victory pay off
This implies that the donor driven GOP (aka Paul Ryan) is any better at appealing a wider audience. It is not, because it is too ideologically driven and to aloof about the plight of struggling Americans. That is why Romney/Ryan lost.
The difference with and the lesson from Trump, is that he "talked" a good game on the subject. It wasn't just "we need to do this, because of x philosophical reason", it was "we need to do y because people are getting killed out there".
