But I walk away from these results and wonder if the COVID Trap has sprung and caught Democrats. Just last month, I wrote that the Democratic Party was in the thrall of public-health maximalism: “Democrats are in danger of pandering to this overly fearful segment of the population, which demands for mitigation measures that are unnecessary and onerous, or coercive measures that can lead to political disaffection and backlash. ”

The fact is, the United States helped launch three successful COVID-19 vaccines, and the uptake of these vaccines in America was the fastest immunization drive in our history by miles. And yet, Democrats still won’t declare victory and move on, leaving the issue hostage to the significant minority of vax-skeptical Americans, who are distributed between both parties. They are mired in a quagmire public-health conflict, in which they cannot name a public-health objective that must be achieved before we can relent with closures, masks, and mandates. My own view is that what they really want is some kind of acknowledgement of moral and intellectual superiority from “deniers.” This will never come…

Joe Biden and the Democrats took power during a state of exception, during a crisis. Voters expected them to bring it to a close. When will they?