You can’t hope to win if you don’t understand why you lost.
Which is why I believe Hillary had no hope. She still doesn’t understand why she lost, but continues to blame it entirely on Comey, Wikileaks, and Russia. Surely Comey, Wikileaks, and Russia had some part to play, but that doesn’t explain her losing so many swing states that Obama won handidly.
Oh, she knows how racial politics work (see the 2008 primary fight). I think for her it’s a matter of knowing but not being able to say so in a way that’s politically helpful. Basket of deplorables and all that–she had her finger right on it, but it was used against her. She’s not about to do that again.
White Northern Democrats and socialists tend to have a built-in blind spot for race. They view everything through the lenses of class, and see racial issues only as class issues distributed disproportionately–you fix class issues, and all race problems magically disappear. I love Bernie’s policies, but he’s got this bad. I think this may be the only issue I think Hillary’s got a better handle on.
EDIT: er, didn’t mean to self-quote, thought I was editing, not sure what happened.