Immigration yes, but for many aspects of the culture wars in the US I don't think this is true. For example, religious issues seem much less salient in political debates. Then again, the economic issues were also much more severe.

I'm also not sure which story is more bullish for dems.

Interesting. I always thought the fact that most European incumbents were also deeply unpopular even with (slightly) weaker cultural concerns meant that inflation was likely a first order issue. But obviously there is no dispositive evidence either way.

Not decisive meaning democrats would have lost even if inflation had been, say, 1-2pp lower for most of the last few years? I find it that hard to believe, but curious about your reasoning.

What do you mean by this? The crisis was driven more directly by financial regulation, no? The NK framework doesn’t have much to say about this.

O'Keeffe and Picasso are great illustrations. This Borges one is also nice.
kwarc.info/teaching/TDM...