Nailed it.
I have two degrees in economics, but like everyone else, we can define inflation, like obscenity, when we see it.
For me a benchmark is the cost of a 35-can pack of Coke Zero at Costco. During the depths of Covid they were priced at $12.19 and increased gradually until early September of this year when it was $14.19. I go on vacation for 3 weeks recently and come back to $17.19. This is palpable, gut-level inflation.
Everyone will have a particular indicator, a staple item for which the price level is easily remembered. This is the inescapable, omnipresent, definitive bad news for Democrats. You cannot mismanage the economy and do this to people and expect them not to notice. Whatever else Democratic campaign consultants may have been selling, there exists no words or music that will distract voters from what they know on a gut level. Their candidates are forked.
Buyers can ‘t pay 1,000 per month more? Who would have seen this coming?