“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”

Since he made it four years ago, Chuck Schumer’s failed prophecy has become perhaps the most infamous summation of liberal hubris during the Trump era. Uttered with a confidence so ironclad it extended to particular states and voter proportions, the Democratic senator’s pronouncement would fall flat come election day: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Ohio all fell to Donald Trump, as did Michigan, a longtime Democratic stronghold. Even deep blue Minnesota nearly turned red thanks to the very suburban voters in whom Schumer and Hillary Clinton had placed their faith.

Though Clinton did manage to win some more affluent suburban counties, the gains proved nowhere near adequate to offset her losses elsewhere. It was, quite simply, a calculated gamble that pivoting towards a traditionally right-leaning constituency would yield electoral success — and it delivered the presidency to the former host of TV’s The Apprentice.