I think Jared Bernstein captures a significant element of why Democrats lost so badly on the national level – and in many states – on Nov. 4.  An excerpt from What I didn’t hear on economic policy in the runup to the midterms:

… [H]ere’s what last night’s election wasn’t about:

“Yes, the economy has been growing and unemployment has been falling. No question, GDP is up, and solidly. But it’s hard to see much of that in your paycheck. In fact, most of the folks getting the growth don’t depend on paychecks; they depend on portfolios.

“Why is it that so little GDP growth is reaching average folks? Because there aren’t enough good jobs, because the trade deficit is too large, because finance is booming compared to manufacturing, because there’s too much outsourcing and offshoring and part-timing and subcontracting … and far too little ability to bargain for a fair slice of the growing pie – a pie you’re helping to bake!

“You don’t fix these problems by cutting taxes, ‘red tape,’ or getting rid of Obamacare. You don’t fix them by hating on the guy in White House or anybody else. You don’t even fix them today by providing better education for kids, though that’s a critical piece of what’s missing and will undoubtedly help them in the future.

“You fix them by fixing them: If the private sector isn’t creating enough jobs, then we need to invest in public goods that will generate more demand. We accept the Federal Reserve as lender of last resort when credit markets fail. Well, if we want to elevate full employment to be the national goal that it should be, then the government must be the job creator of last resort when the private sector fails.

“You fix them by fighting back when our trading partners depress the value of their currencies to get an export edge over us and by reviving the labor standards that will make sure people get the pay they deserve, whether its overtime or a decent minimum wage or the flexible scheduling you need to balance work and family.”

We might well have gotten our asses kicked if we’d made that argument.  We’ll never know.  But if we’re going to get beat let’s at least go down having done the right thing.