Democrats' problem in 2016 wasn't that they went high; they simply ran on vague platitudes about America already being great and being "Stronger Together" while not offering a clear vision of how they wanted to shape the country. Clinton did not run an issue driven campaign, while Trump, for all of his bombast and absurd theatrics, ran on issues like jobs, trade, and immigration. Those were his clear issues, and I don't think that Clinton had any issues that were strongly her own.
I understand that there are other elections to look at when analyzing this question, but I don't think it's often the case that going low wins simply for the sake of going low.
Trump went low because on trade he offered a false bill of goods. He made promises that won't result in what he claimed.
I completely disagree with the rest. He was all over the map on immigration (most of the time he pandered to racism, but not all of the time) and completely incoherent on jobs.
As for Hillary Clinton, she essentially ran as Barack Obama's third term.
