Also, most folks who don’t live in the privileged enclaves of high society or high academia or high government would argue that other, more pressing crises — most of them hidden in plain sight — should be considered the gravest threat to our country in our lifetime.

Things such as subpar graduation rates in our inner-city schools, or the 90 million people who have left the nation’s workforce in the past six years, or our economy being less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades — or that a Brookings study showed, between 2009 and 2011, small businesses were collapsing faster than they were being formed.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka cautioned Obama and Democrats to consider how millions of livelihoods outside of D.C. would be impacted: “We are prepared to … make sacrifices, but not while the most privileged in our society stand on the sidelines and expect our poorest communities to bear the costs.”

A wave election is building beyond Washington — not a tsunami, but a wave — yet most experts don’t see it because they define an electoral “wave” as a large flip to the party in power; Republicans already control the House and probably will add more seats to their list.