When the White House and its allies are not blaming former President Donald Trump and corporate greed for inflation, President Joe Biden simply pretends the worst price instability in 40 years doesn’t actually exist, instead bragging that our persistently sub-4% unemployment rate is evidence of “America’s comeback” and a booming economy. Biden’s backers like Paul Krugman laud the president for catching the white whale of “full employment” and deride voters running away from Biden’s reelection bid as “inflation truthers.”

But Biden cannot beat the reality that voters despise the economy and blame him personally simply by blaming us plebians. And the fact is that this election isn’t just about the economy, stupid, but specifically inflation, a phenomenon the majority of the electorate has never experienced and decided they deplore.