Did the republicans just have a better ground game than democrats?

[haele]

50. No, Americans in general are motivated by emotion.

Ever since the beginning. DeToqueville wrote about that back in the late 18th/early 19th century when he wrote his expose on the founding of America and the post-colonial American frontier.
We are like adolecents. We loves us some braggadacio, tall tales, populists, and olde time religion to make us feel superior to those old, corrupt Europeans we reject. There is also particular suspicion that someone is going to take "our stuff" from us, especially those who we don't think are as good as us. We may seem gererous and open, but it's only so long as it benefits us.
The American psychosis. Especially prevelent in those from European extraction.

Trump tapped into that zietgist.