Sorry for the length of this post as I am putting most of my thoughts here.
Racism, sexism, misogyny, demonization, etc., etc. won. It often wins in American politics. I don't think policy was going to ultimately win for Harris. I don't think messaging was ultimately going to win for Harris. There is no way to know this for sure, but my guess is a white, straight male who ran the exact same campaign as Harris would have garnered more votes. I'm sure many will disagree with that.
Trump is clearly a racist and a misogynist. I don't think that is up for dispute. I'm sure conservatives would disagree. However, throughout Trump's career he has shown his racist attitudes. Heck, what brought him onto the modern political scene was birtherism. Trump's disdain for women is well-documented.
For his supporters, that did not matter or they could rationalize it. Again, I'm sure many would disagree, but throughout American political history, the demonization of the "other" has been successful. Rather than focusing on the issue at hand that is actually prohibiting growth among a group of people, a party gives these groups an "other" to blame or look down on.
Racism, of course, is at the core of the founding of this country. That did not end with slavery. The election of 1876 was a bitter one. Samuel Tilden actually won the popular vote but the electoral college was razor thin. Rutherford B. Hayes assured southern states that he would end reconstruction if those electors would opt for him. They did. And he did. What happened? The vile curtain of Jim Crow descended and African American basically lost the right to vote in the south for decades. The voting rights act of 1965 corrected some of this. Of course the Roberts court defanged the voting rights act, taking out preclearance.
We are to act like racism and demonization are over? No. They still work. This election proves it. Some might say, but look at these groups that Trump made inroads with and that voted for him? My response to that is how a party (and in recent decades that has been the Republican party) still makes a group, some other, a scapegoat by demonizing them. Illegals, transgender, whatever. A woman. These groups are presented as both villains and as lesser than.
Trump lied continually. People who worked with Trump, respected military leaders, said he was unfit that he praised Hitler, that he called military personnel losers. None of that mattered. I don't know all of the reasons why, but to dismiss what has been true throughout the history of American politics, that demonization works, is to be willfully blind. The message is "things are bad for you because of X group. You are better than X group." Trump's message was that.
Add in a willing right wing media that constantly tells its followers that X group is out to get you social media that allows for people to only be exposed to what they agree with, complete with "experts" that can justify what they believe in, and Trump's demonization of ther other is able to explode.
There is much anguish about connecting with working class voters. Harris embracing some populist or progressive or whatever policy positions or messaging was not going to attract these working class voters. Not when the opposing message is to give them groups of people to disdain.
The American experiment is just that: an experiment. It is a young experiment in the annals of history. But American nature, in perhaps it is human nature, is to want to blame others. Give voters someone to hate and they are more motivated.
This is who we are.
Understanding this requires critical thinking and self-reflection. Those are two things that most Americans, and maybe people in general, do not want to embrace. It requires us to look within. Why look within when there are so many others saying, "look without. That is where your problems come from." Not only do you not have to look within, you get to appear tough by looking without. "This group is hurting you, let's get tough against them."
That does not mean we should not try to be better. Of course we should. We should work to be better. But ignoring that racism, sexism, demonization doesn't work is ignoring American history. For now, this is who we are.