From an economist’s point of view, conditions heading into the off-year elections probably didn’t seem so bad on paper. Inflation crept up but wasn’t spiking. Hiring was low but so was firing. Wages were still climbing, and the stock market was making investors feel wealthier .

But voters who showed up to the polls on Tuesday had a different point of view and delivered stinging defeats to Republicans.

“It’s a wake-up call,” polling expert Frank Luntz told MSNBC on Wednesday about the election results. “It’s a wake-up call to Democrats and Republicans. And it’s not the economy. It’s not even inflation because that’s something that’s used by professors and politicians. It is affordability.”

In particular, he pointed to housing and healthcare prices for the upper middle class, while wo

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