What is “The Lesson” from the 2024 election?

I’m hearing a lot of theories, and most of them are wrong. It’s certainly not that Democrats need to move to the right. Oh, please! That’s both morally wrong and bad politics.

It’s not that Harris ran a bad campaign. I think she ran a good one given that she had just over three months to do it.

And while yes, misogyny and racism absolutely played a role, I don’t believe they were the biggest factors either.

Here’s the real Lesson:

A top issue for most Americans was the economy.

While the economy has improved over the last four years according to standard economic measures, most Americans without college degrees — that’s the majority — have not felt it. These Americans overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

In fact, most Americans without college degrees have not felt much economic improvement for four decades, and their jobs have grown less secure.

Adjusted for inflation, the typical income of the bottom 90% is stuck nearly where it was in the early 1990s, even though the economy is more than twice as large.

Most of the gains have gone to the top, leaving many Americans frustrated and angry. Trump gave voice to that anger. Harris did not.

The real lesson of 2024 is that Democrats must not just give voice to the anger but also explain how record inequality has corrupted our system, and commiting to limit the political power of big corporations and the super-rich.

The basic bargain used to be that if you worked hard and played by the rules, you’d do better, and your children would do even better than you.

But over the past few decades, that bargain has become a sham. The middle class has shrunk.

Why? While Republicans steadily cut taxes on the rich — allowing inequality to skyrocket — many Democrats abandoned the working class.

Democrats and Republicans alike embraced free-trade deals that hurt American workers. They deregulated finance and allowed Wall Street to become a high-stakes gambling casino.

Both parties let big corporations gain enough market power to keep prices (and profit margins) high.

They let corporations bust unions and slash payrolls. They bailed out Wall Street when its gambling addiction threatened to blow up the entire economy, but never bailed out homeowners who lost everything.

They welcomed big money into their campaigns — and delivered quid pro quos that rigged the market in favor of big corporations and the wealthy.

Joe Biden redirected the Democratic Party back toward its working-class roots, with vigorous antitrust enforcement, stronger enforcement of labor laws, and major investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, semiconductors, and clean energy.

But we’re only just beginning to reap the benefits of those policies, and now many are likely to be reversed.

The Republican Party says it’s on the side of working people, but its policies have and will hurt workers even more.

Trump’s tariffs will drive up prices. His expected retreat from antitrust enforcement will allow giant corporations to get even bigger and driving up prices up even higher.

Republicans will extend and expand Trump’s tax cuts for the rich. This will blow up the national debt and give them an excuse to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats must stand firm against all of this. They should demand paid family leave, Medicare for all, free public higher education, stronger unions, higher taxes on the rich, and housing credits that will generate the biggest boom in home construction since World War II.

They should also demand that corporations share their profits with their workers. They should call for limits on CEO pay, eliminate stock buybacks (which used to be illegal), and reject corporate welfare.

Democrats need to tell Americans why their pay has been lousy for decades and their jobs less secure — and who is to blame.

It’s not because of immigrants, the LGBTQ community, people of color, the “deep state,” or any other MAGA bogeyman. It’s because of the power of large corporations and the rich to rig the market and siphon off most of the economy’s gains.

The Democratic Party should use this inflection point to become an anti-establishment party ready to shake up the system on behalf of the vast majority of Americans.

This is and should be The Lesson of the 2024 election.