I think you have way too high an opinion of the average voter. Only 1/3 of the people in this country can name their senators and Rep. Most people had no clue what Trump or Harris were actually running on. If they did, they would not have voted for project 2025.
Joe Biden is the only non-incumbent President to win without a full primary cycle in 80 years. On the topic of the 2024 Presidential election specifically, the issues are wider than policy failure. If your policy cannot beat bigotry and lies, and you have no groundswell support, well, good luck.
I'm not sure where we're missing here. To get support, you need people to like you. To get people to like you, you need to talk to them. Based on those conversations, that should drive some of your policy decisions, but the more important thing is that they continue to like you.
Can't fake the funk. That's how you get Dukakkis'd. Or, to update the term losing union support and not at all realizing that it was an inflation and plutocracy election, Harris'd. Lies won over nothing.
Has to be real talk for sure. I do think Biden did good things, but he fucked Gaza bad and he fucked the entire primary. I liked Harris and can't fathom how anybody thought Trump was a better or similar option, but she probably would not have won the primary if Biden didn't run.