I'm not sure there's a direct correlation. However, I will say I think the left has lost their minds a bit on identity politics. Hillary Clinton would have won the election had she run as her husband's campaign of 1996. Of course, her husband's '96 campaign said "We should end Welfare as we know it", and "The era of big government is over". He signed the DOMA that year, and also received FOP police endorsements for his tough on crime stances.
Everything I just described is now considered "racist", "homophobic" and "intolerant" by the left of today's Democratic Party.
I think the problem that has liberals in meltdown right now is that America didn't vote for their vision. They made Donald Trump out as "deplorable, racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, ect....and America responded by electing him with over 300 electoral votes.
That means either A.) American's didn't buy into the Democratic logic or B.) Americans didn't care.
Either way, it's an agonizing defeat for liberals and they don't know how to deal with that.
No, she would have lost even worse if she'd run on school uniforms, V chip, DOMA, abortion limitations, and the like. She had to fool the more gullible liberals into thinking she was remotely liberal.