The thing is, your first chart shows exactly what Bozo and the feelings of working Americans reflect. We were used to wages slightly outpacing inflation….doing just a little better over time, steadily. Then…inflation outpaced wages, for a good slice of time. In recent months, wages again outpaced inflation, but people haven’t regained all the ground they lost and, more importantly, they don’t FEEL like they regained that ground. The traumatic feeling of falling behind is still a fresh feeling. Objectively, so we see that there was an economic phenomenon and cycle that happened globally, and the US weathered it better than almost everyone else, and is largely in the recovery/recovered period? Sure. But statistics aren’t feelings. Feelings are what people have, and people are the thing that votes. Truly, I don’t know if any Dem candidate could have done anything to win, climbing uphill against those feelings. But…they could have done better. And yes…they need to figure out how to run negative campaigns, because people respond to demonization and fear 1000X better than they respond to boring policy and facts. We have a booming and evil oligarch class asserting outsized influence, ripe target right there.