In 1992, the “war room” of then-Governor Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign plastered its wall with a simple campaign slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid!”

A quarter century later, following a period of life spent in the American economic stratosphere, Team Clinton appears to have lost sight of this simple political reality.

For over a year now, our national political pundits and newspaper publishers have been dumb-founded by the rise of populist, insurgent, and significant third-party candidacies in the Presidential race.

These candidacies have threatened to interrupt the ascension to the presidency of perhaps the most objectively qualified person to ever seek the post, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

How, the prognosticators have wondered, could an independent Socialist from Vermont, a 75-year-old Jewish political gadfly, nearly wrest the Democratic nomination away from the most powerful, and well funded, political machine in America?

How could a racist, sexist, neo-fascist con-man like Donald Trump, destroy the party of Lincoln and, despite his dumpster fire of a campaign, still stand within striking distance of the White House in recent polling?

How, above all, in such a critical election could so many members of the electorate consider voting for a third party, or worse, not even voting at all?

The elusive answer these pundits seek has been there all along for a quarter century: It’s the economy, stupid!

President Obama, and candidate Clinton, would have the American public believe the lie that things are getting better. While not taking away credit from the current administration for their yeoman’s work at saving the country from a total financial calamity after the 2008 crash, the economy for most Americans is not getting better, it is getting worse.

Recent studies demonstrate that a full two-thirds of the American public do not have $1,000 cash on hand in the case of an emergency. As many as three-quarter of all Americans live month-to-month or week-to-week.

The president, and the Democratic nominee, say that health coverage is up and unemployment is down. It is true that more people are employed, but they are employed working more hours and making less money. These workers may now have what some would call health care but, with high premiums, high deductibles, and numerous exclusions, these so-called “plans” are little more than public subsidies for the major insurance companies, not real health care coverage.

The bottom line is that the American people are not stupid, their oligarchical leaders are.

The people know that the Democratic nominee is a friend of Wall Street, a supporter of free trade, and she lives at the apex intersection of money and politics.

The people also know that the Republican nominee is a dangerous and unstable man, a narcissist and a megalomaniac, who should never be put in charge of nuclear weapons.

With such a sad choice before us, it appears likely that team Clinton will win what little glory may be left on this wasteland of a battlefield we call American politics, but the losers appear equally easy to identify.

The losers are the American people. No matter what the outcome of the election in November, most Americans will see their incomes continue to decline and their household expenses continue to increase.

Our country’s policies will continue to be dominated by corporate America and by our ever shrinking, and ever more legally insulated, economic oligarchy.

We, as a nation, are on an unsustainable financial course. The American people who live daily with economic reality understand this. Meanwhile, our politicians who are part of, or who are paid to represent, the upper economic 1 percent of our population, will continue to be baffled by this election season.

If the Clintons, or the press, seek a better understanding of why their political world has come unglued, perhaps they would do well to remember Team Clinton’s slogan from a long past election: It’s the economy, stupid!

Daryl Finizio is the former mayor of New London. He worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign in the Democratic primary race.