Unfortunately for Republicans, the situation is very easy to describe:
1. Trump won a cost-of-living election
2. Then he publicly announced a plan to raise the price of imports
3. Then he even-more-publicly started a war that raised the price of gas
4. Meanwhile, he got rich on crypto scams, while engaging in downright Pynchonian misadventures with the reflecting pool and ballroom, which sent the unmistakeable signal that "I care more about random bullshit than America's money problems ... and also I'm not even good at executing on the random bullshit"
For the midterms, I think corruption/self-dealing is issue 1b behind cost of living as 1a.
It's not just that people feel things are unaffordable for themselves, they think those in power are helping rich friends get richer.
From our latest "America in Focus" focus group...