Heh, what I'm taking away from all of this is that America threw out Hillary not because she wouldn't have done a good job, but because she didn't make you feel good about it. Especially considering that Sanders' and Clinton's voting record aligns incredibly closely. Maybe that's the way Sanders helped Trump get elected: He massively reinforced this notion that it's not about doing a good job as president, but that it's about identity - ideological identity, in this case. Not about good governance, but about being a good guy to drink a beer with. That matters when you end up working with a person yourself, but it doesn't necessarily do so when electing an official. The closer analogue would be having networks and connections, and let's be honest, Clinton blows Sanders out of the water there.
It's probably not something he did on purpose, and probably something that any challenger would've done, so don't blame him - blame 'Murrica. Blame TV, blame decades of Republicans dumbing down their base, blame the prosperity gospel, blame postmodernism. Blame the cult of the amateur, of the self-made man, of the people's voice as conveniently embodied in one politician or another. Blame all the poor sods out there who were driven into despising competence, into despising politics for being dirty in the same way that fixing a car is dirty. Blame the politicians who decided to deal with this by throwing money at their constituents, advertisements, leaflets, campaign events, by putting up an illusion around themselves instead of selling the product - themselves - on its actual merits. Don't blame Sanders, but don't blame Trump for anything either. And don't blame Hillary - you wouldn't fault a horse for the invention of the car, or for the smog that car produces.
Insert slow clap gif here. Maybe you guys deserved Trump after all. Maybe there was no way around him.