Donald Trump was the final chance left-liberals had for a "just settlement" of this country's many contradictions: essentially, the relentless assault on the Core, which is Anglo and culturally Protestant, cannot continue without stuff starting to break. Other people can show-up, but they need to "get with the program," not make too much noise, and generally accept the implicit identity of the country.

Trump had the potential to balance the Core identity with the influx of new people and the changing global landscape. Doing so would have allowed everyone to reach a gentle equilibrium state, and America would have continued to putter-along as a slightly more Latin version of its prior self.

Failure to reach this equilibrium will result in real nativist/racialist reaction (as opposed to Trump's civic nationalism), and who can say where that will end-up? That will be quite unpleasant. Trump probably didn't want to take away most of the things that left-liberals hold dear, but now that we've lost this chance, they might be unhappy with the subsequent backlash.