More like the liberty politicians and their supporters fail to recognize they will never win elections unless they make massive major media investments on a national scale. That is the only way to counter the propaganda and win a significant amount of voters to win elections. I have been saying that in this forum since 07 with hopes otherwise but obviously it never pans out.
As far as Trump everyone knew he was a gamble that was worth the risk given limited choices. You forget so soon what the limited choices were.
Trump - Despite some contradictory doubletalk he ran on not invading Syria, peace with Russia and was getting bashed as an isolationist over foreign policy statements. Ran as a nationalist, anti-globalist with a strong immigration and trade platform.
Hillary - ran as a known interventionist that wanted to shoot Russia plans out of the sky with a no-fly zone in Syria. Globalist, establishment status quo, supported TPP, need I say more.
Rand Paul - by summer of 15 his campaign was effectively over by his establishment pivot on tax, immigration and BLM. By August 15 it was pretty clear at that point he was not a serious candidate and was using the race to advance his senate campaign while clearly without shadow of a doubt was only running an educational campaign (as observed from his campaign stop speeches). A stepping stone campaign for 2020 due to a predicted Trump loss in 2016.
Daryl Castle - not a serious candidate and no effort being made to run a national campaign. More likely a campaign to advance his radio show.
Gary Johnson - supported a no fly zone in Syria while sounding totally ignorant on Syria. "What is Aleppo? Ran on open borders, pro TPP and had nutty Bill Weld on his ticket. A candidate no average voter would take seriously.