Ha, you sound like every other grumpy old man who is angry because voters won't vote the way you wanted them to. HRC had nothing to offer to lots of voters and that's why she lost. Remember that the idealists you disparage go on to change the world, and the cynical "realists" have the double loss of supporting a crappy candidate who loses anyway. 
Want to win an election? Nominate a good candidate. See Obama 2008 or JFK 1960. Want to lose? Nominate a dull one and try to shove them down people's throats. See HRC 2008 and 2016.
I've worked in politics for 40 years and you can't ask people to support a candidate out of the zero-sum reasoning you suggest, they just resent it. And if there was a disconnect from average folks it was on the part of the Clinton-world elitists, not the other way around.