For Dems, it's comforting to believe that voters were reacting directly to an economic fundamental because then you can continue to ignore the cultural and social and media layers of politics, and keep focusing on the economy. "Produce a good economy, get elected" is how Dems want politics to work.

The problem is that it's just WRONG. Inflation has been down for a while, and nobody has any good explanation for why public fury over inflation persisted so long. And it's highly likely that the terrible Biden economy will immediately become the powerful Trump economy - without changing at all.