There are so many exasperating parts of this election, it's hard to catalog them all. The Bernie Sanders' critique is one of them.
Biden ran one of the most pro-union, pro-worker administrations in the country's history. He opposed tech and corporate mergers that lead to monopoly. He produced an economic recovery that is measurably the best in the world.
There are two arguments: One is that Democrats have a message imbalance in the new media landscape. There's some merit to this, but it really seems like this is more of a vibes issue than a communication strategy. Trump's weird cult of personality stems from his unearned reputation as a "business man" who lives in a gilded penthouse. The economy was "bad" because people said it was bad. There were "invisible" issues in the electorate that Dems missed (credit card debt), and they may have made messaging mistakes, but if you're arguing against people's "gut" you are going to lose that argument.
Put another way, misinformation is not about changing people's minds, but reinforcing their prior beliefs. The economy really did suffer through a period of bad inflation for about 16 months. That was real. Misinformation simply fed into that.
The other argument is that this was a policy problem. I think there is one area where this has real merit: college debt forgiveness.
Yes, I think it was a solid policy, especially when linked to forgiving loans for sectors like health care and education. It was pretty bad politics though, because of how and when it was structured. Democrats did well with college graduates, but I don't really think that was because Biden forgave their loans. Dems did well with that demographic because college graduates are probably looking at the abstract implications of Trump's restoration as opposed to the bread and butter issues.
Still, in the middle of a period of economic instability wrought by inflation, Democrats prioritized helping out a demographic that - generally speaking - is doing OK. College loans are structured terribly. The way we pay for an increasingly expensive college education is nuts. However, simply giving money to college graduates and not other groups of people is bad politics. Of course, giving people money during inflation isn't optimal in the first place.
Of course, Biden DID give money to other groups of people back in 2021-22, but they were not touted as "Biden Bucks". Trump insisted his signature go on the 2020 stimulus checks. There should have been more overt propaganda around Biden's economic stimulus. Dems ARE pretty bad at that, bound as they are by norms.
There is, of course, the whole "cultural Left" thing. I don't think Harris' loss is (entirely) because she's a Black Woman, but more because she's a San Francisco Liberal. That's why the incessant hate mongering around Trans people worked. I really don't think people wake up hating Trans people. Those ads worked because they made it seem (falsely) that Harris' animating principle was Trans Rights, rather than economic issues. You never want to be "out of touch" with the electorate's priorities.
The problem is that all the White Papers in the world cannot change people's minds on this. Especially the low information voters who swung this election to Trump and the GOP. Some of this will be resolved either by Trump's death/term limits or a Trumpist economic collapse. There was not secret message that Harris left in the drawer that would've unlocked those votes.
In the end, Democrats' strongest message in 2026-28 will be an anti-billionaire message. That should line up well with people's preconceptions about both parties. Yes, there will be a need to run on reproductive rights and who knows what horrors the Trumpist GOP will unleash. Some we can imagine, some we fear won't come to pass and others we haven't even considered.
Still, whatever economic program Trump lands on, it is likely to help Elon Musk more than you. This will require running less as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren and more as FDR.
The defection of large numbers of Latino voters should remind us the two-edged sword of relying on identity politics. Identity is dependent on context. If - as I imagine - Trump focuses on the welfare of the very rich, we should be able to recapture all sorts of working class voters once Trump's uniquely distorting effect on low income voters is spent.