If you went back in time 100 years ago and told them who was president in 2008 and reelected again in 2012, they would put you in an insane asylum.
I think people really don’t care about race or gender in POTUS as much as the media puts out, people really just want to not go bankrupt from medical debt, or not have to pay $500,000 for their childrens college and other “bread and butter” personal issues.
99% of the US is progressive, they just don’t know it yet. Everyone benefits from improved policy, that message just needs to be communicated better in a way that even the most stubborn conservative will understand. Bernie Sanders was proof of that because he was capturing the working class and it terrified the 0.01%