Trump and his team were a mess on campaign discipline. But when it came to the economic platform in his speeches he remained disciplined and clear: He’s going to crush undocumented workers, roll back globalization, and cut taxes and regulations in DC. He has catch phrases and symbols for each (the wall, rip up trade deals, drain the swamp), and it’s easy for his (white) voters to imagine how those line up with a better economic situation for themselves. As I’ve
emphasized, this is what policy is, and Trump was fantastic at it.
What were Clinton’s three things to benefit workers? There was policy everywhere, but none of it was clear to voters. An infrastructure deal — though would that even happen and didn’t Obama already try that? Anyway, Trump promised to do it twice as big. After that it wasn’t clear what was a priority.
Stuff that actually would affect workers’ lives was presented in a technocratic and vague way. Clinton spoke of “short-termism” instead of bosses who would rather give money to shareholders than invest in their companies and workers. “Shadow banking” instead of “Wells Fargo was ripping you off and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stopped it.” I use these terms too — they are useful when talking to other economists — but I’m not running a political campaign.