The key to beating Trump, Democrats told us, was suburban women. They found The Donald crass and overbearing and unsuitable. Instead, Democrats gave them the soothing figure of Uncle Joe Biden. Uncle Joe is moving kind of slow these days, but after 40 years in politics, he offered a reassuring promise of returning to "normalcy."

But no. Instead, it's as if the Democratic Party has gone out of its way to alienate those very suburban women. The School Board Offensive, with Attorney General Merrick Garland treating angry moms like domestic terrorists, was bad enough and cost Democrats Virginia this week. White women swung an amazing 15 points toward the GOP from 2020. But the wave of consumer inflation the Democrats have unleashed with their reckless spending will make that look like, well, a shrunken bag of more-expensive Doritos.

Those bags of Doritos are getting smaller and more expensive because of what's called "shrinkflation." That's where companies shrink their products to hide the extent of price increases. Something sold by the pound turns into a 12-ounce package at the same price. It's everywhere nowadays.

General Mills got slapped for cutting its "family-sized" cereal boxes from 19.3 ounces to 18.1. (Hey, families are getting smaller, right?) Tillamook cut its ice-cream tubs from 56 ounces to 48 while keeping the price the same. Costco cut its paper-towel rolls from 160 sheets to 140.

It's happening all over – the cost is the same (or creeps up) but you get less for your money. The price increase may not be obvious, but people actually do notice because they're not stupid.

Then there are the increases that can't be hidden. Gasoline is way up, with the effects of inflation exacerbated by Biden's policy of pipeline cancellations and fracking bans. I'm paying $3.73/gallon now; I was paying something like $2.40/gallon a year ago. (Some people are fighting back by putting Joe Biden "I did that!" stickers next to the price window on gas pumps. They're selling briskly on Amazon.)

Cars and trucks are jacked up – 7.6 percent for new, a whopping 31.9 percent for used. Meat is up over 10 percent. Overall inflation is officially up 5.4 percent over last year, but that probably understates the real cost of living.

For a while they tried to tell us this was just a "transitory" problem due to COVID fallout, but that excuse is wearing thin. Reporting that price hikes are "sending shocks through household budgets," CBS News quoted experts saying that these price increases won't disappear any time soon. And in a revealing tell, Bloomberg ran a story basically arguing that hey, inflation is actually good for us! Uh huh.

Meanwhile, when Twitter founder Jack Dorsey tweeted about the dangers of growing inflation, he was mobbed by Democratic flacks claiming that by talking about inflation he might make it worse. Some even said his remarks were a threat to "our democracy."

Well, since "our democracy" is just a Democratic code phrase for "our untrammeled political power," they probably were. Because people really, really hate inflation. When times are hard, people who still have jobs – which even in the Depression was most people – aren't so affected. But when prices skyrocket, everyone pays, and everyone notices.

And the people who notice the most are the people who do the shopping, and even today that's more women than men, especially in the suburbs.

"Milton Friedman isn't running the show anymore," said Biden, referring to the famous anti-inflation economist, when he was challenged about the inflationary impact of his grandiose spending plans. Except that actually, Friedman kind of is. Politicians like spending, so they don't want to admit that overspending leads to inflation. But as Friedman reminded us, it always does.

So all over America, people are buying gas, groceries and the other necessities of life, and they're paying more for them, and they don't like it. The rich donors who fund the Democratic Party, and even the high-flying professionals who make up its controlling class, can afford to shell out and probably don't much care about more expensive steaks, or hamburger, or cereal. But the people whose votes the Democrats need in 2022 and 2024 are noticing, and they care.

Return to normalcy? Only if "normal" means "normal for the Carter presidency."

Jimmy was a one-termer you know, Joe. And he ushered in 12 years of Republican presidents.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee and founder of the InstaPundit.com blog.