Trends in the popular vote signal trouble for Hillary Clinton's party. As Democrats try to regroup after their recent presidential defeat, they tend to delude themselves on three crucial points.

First, they seek comfort in Hillary Clinton’s popular vote margin of more than two million, marking the sixth election of the last seven in which a Democrat won more raw votes than his or her Republican rival. But this meaningless “winning streak” masks a far more serious losing streak: In the last 50 years, over the course of 13 presidential elections, Barack Obama is the only Democratic nominee to reach a solid popular vote majority of 51% or more — and he did it twice. Going beyond Lyndon Johnson’s landslide against Barry Goldwater in 1964, you’d need to reach all the way back to Franklin D. Roosevelt to find another Democratic nominee who connected with an unmistakable majority of his fellow citizens. In the intervening 72 years since FDR’s last race in 1944, Republicans won decisive, majority victories seven times.