MSNBC pundits have been saying that Trump defeated both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Put another way, he defeated the status quo, the duopoly and establishment media. They also said this was a rejection of Clintonism, trade deals, centrism, all of it (a result, my dears, that we would not have if The Hillary had even squeaked in.)

Carville, also known as the "It's the economy, stupid" strategist, said that Hillary received a lot of advice, including that she needed to run on fiscal issues. However, she decided to go with GOTV and "temperament" (IOW, "Trump is a sexist pig who brags about grabbing p___ies and who, just like the Goldwater guy I worked for in 1964, also should not have the nuclear codes."). And so, we have yet another example of The Hillary's incredibly bad judgment and lust for the low road. (The Obamas probably came up with, "When they go low, we go high," in 2008: Hillary ran against Obama far lower than did McCain or Romney.)

Okay, the five things:*

1. Never be cocky, but never be resigned to defeat or give up.

2. Don't trust pollsters, establishment media or self-appointed fact "checkers." All three are adept at ignoring and pretzeling facts.

3. Ultimately, it's about the message and how much people trust the candidate to be truthful and to deliver, not about big donors.

Voters, when the red team or the blue team screams at you to donate more because they're behind in fundraising or because they're being outspent, scream back at them to be better candidates. (The exception, of course, is a candidate who is funding solely with smaller donations from ordinary people, as did Sanders.)

Candidates, get a set of principles and stick to them, absent an extraordinary reason to change. No one trusts continually holding up a wet finger to see which way the wind is blowing that particular second.

Trump spent almost nothing on the primary and far, far less than Hillary on the general. Supposedly he had no ground game at all. And, let's not forget: If you have a good message and people trust you to deliver, they will both fund you and vote for you. Sanders proved that, even though, on paper, he did not beat the Clinton machine.

4. Politicians, don't interfere with the primary choice of your base. Dump super delegates, especially those given that status solely by virtue of being big donors. Stop colluding with each other, big donors and with the flocking establishment media.

5. Whose turn it is, who "paid his or her dues, etc. is irrelevant at the polls, at best. It;s a minus. Elections belong to voters, not to parties. No politician has gotten in line to help the 90% for decades. Besides, the one who is next in line has most likely already shown a tendency to lose big races (Humphrey, Mondale, McCain, Romney, etc.).

Anyone who was sentient in 2008 and/or read Game Change knows how bad a campaign Hillary ran in 2008 (when it was also her turn) and how good a campaign Obama ran, even though they were both DLC/DNC Democrats. Instead of copying Republicans, right down to the stupid "It's his/her turn mentality," Democrats need to learn what I think Republicans finally learned after both 2008 and 2012--and what I falsely assumed Democrats learned after Adlai Stevenson: Just maybe, if someone runs a Presidential campaign that is low down, that runs out of money, and that loses at the polls, that candidate may well repeat one or more of those behaviors.

Bad leadership and bad judgment tend not to improve with age. Neither does likeability. And "Oh, yeah, him with that stuff again" doesn't drive people to donate, volunteer, drive their neighbors to the polls, etc. Presidents need much more than personality, but, to win, they probably do need to be able to inspire, to stir imaginations and generate hope. "Prepared, hardworking" (but also ineffective) just doesn't cut it. We don't need an empty suit, though. In a population of over 325 million, nominating candidates who are smart, at least relatively) honest, likeable and effective should not be as impossible as the duopoly has made it seem. (Effectiveness in changing the status quo for the better is not in the interest of the establishment.)

Hillary may work hard and prepare. Nonetheless, she Peter Principled at Billarycare, maybe even at WalMart and the Rose Law firm. Maybe even at the Watergate hearings. She had a long list list of job titles, and talked a good game, even taking credit for Kennedy's SCHIP. But, she had a very short list of accomplishments. (Sorry, I don't consider using words an accomplishment, especially not for a politician. If I learned anything by March 2010, I learned that.) Oh, and screw nepotism. Yes, it worked for John Quincy Adams, but service in the nation's capitol then was a severe hardship and qualified people were much harder to come by. More recently, it's given us only Bush the Lesser. I rest my case.

*All the above, of course, is meaningless if the vote is rigged. So, we the people have to make sure the vote is not rigged: vote caging, paper trail, honest count--all of it. Focus on your cities, towns and states in that regard because the federal government seems hopeless.

We've certainly learned more lessons since 2008. The above are only the five that smacked me upside the head as I was listening to the punditz (sic) on MSNBC during the wee hours.

P.S. Howard Dean, raised on Park Avenue and in East Hampton, is now bloviating that voters wanted to kick the table over, but never thought of the consequences. What a pompous, tone deaf ass.

Yes, you fool, we did think of the consequences. We were simply that fed up and that desperate and you and yours insisted on forcing Hillary on us, anyway. You've been doing similar things for the past four decades. At long last,you and yours left us no choice but to send you a message, regardless of the risks. So, we did, duh.

As for consequences, let your fellow centrist Democrats in Congress, especially the Senate, do their damn jobs for a refreshing change. Use the filibuster, the one-person hold and every other tool that Republicans always use, whether they are in the majority or minority, and no matter what media say about them. Let them treat Trump as the powerless being in the face of Congress and public opinion that they've been telling us Obama is.

If Democrats in Congress don't do their jobs, that's on the them, not the electorate. Oh, and Democrats should try doing better in general--fewer excuses and rationalizations and better results for the 90%. It's up to politicians to serve us. It's not up to us to make sure you all get what you try to force on us.