Politics in the Biden era have not gotten any less divisive. Voters continue to see the other side as an existential threat. A survey conducted this summer by the University of Virginia Center for Politics and Project Home Fire found the divide between Trump voters and Biden voters to be “deep, wide and dangerous.” For example, 80 percent of Biden voters and 84 percent of Trump voters agreed with the statement that elected officials from the opposite party represent a “clear and present danger to American democracy,” while three-quarters of both Trump and Biden voters think that supporters of the opposite party themselves represent a “clear and present danger to the American way of life.”

Then there’s the issue of COVID itself. Many of those who had hoped that a vaccine would allow them to return to their ‘normal lives’ are overwhelmed by the torrent of information and misinformation about COVID coming at them. As one younger Black man described it in a recent focus group, “you just don’t know what’s real anymore.” The issue of vaccine mandates has been weaponized by Democrats in the Virginia governor’s race and the recall attempt of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

For those who had hoped that Biden’s pledge to a return to established norms would mean tackling problems like police violence against communities of color and the plight of DACA recipients, there’s little to be optimistic about.