The result is a faintly metallic taste in their air. On the left and the right, political resentments are heating up as if in a pressure cooker, with the pandemic lockdowns serving as the lid. Not all of these complaints match the evidence, but that doesn’t stop them from being widely shared and motivating. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to take a moment to channel each side’s grievances.

Left: There was enough evidence to know President Trump was a buffoon when you elected him, and this is what happens when you elect a buffoon! MAGA? America has a higher COVID-fatality rate than most modern nations. There are outbreaks across important Trump-friendly states like Texas, Arizona, and Florida, all of which are run by governors trying to impress the president! Aren’t Christians supposed to protect the vulnerable? Stop going to these renegade church services! Because we can’t act like a first-world nation, my kids can’t go back to school. This idiot knows he’s losing, so he’s trying to suppress the vote and make people distrust the mail-in results. And we’ll have to mail in our ballots, because instead of doing what every other credible leader did, he told us the virus would magically disappear and started prescribing drugs during White House press briefings.

All you do is whine about being the real victims of cancel culture. I remember your trying to shut down plays in high schools. I remember your running bulldozers over country-music albums after 9/11. You canceled Ellen when she came out. You care more about mean tweets than mass shootings. You’re supposed to be conservatives, but you won’t defend our elections, our democratic norms, or even our Constitution if they get in Trump’s way. Go to hell.