In more stable times, America’s low unemployment and $1.2 trillion in long-overdue infrastructure spending would be easy victory laps for a new president. But these aren’t stable times, and Biden will be speaking to a nation still reeling from the violent aftermath of the bitterly contested 2020 election and deep divisions over vaccination and masking — both conflicts that find their origin in Donald Trump’s long shadow.

Even more troubling, America is in the midst of an identity crisis. A year into Biden’s tenure, the U.S. is still re-establishing its domestic and international footing after Trump’s four-year assault on the legitimacy of American institutions and withdrawal of the U.S. from a position of global leadership. It isn’t clear which side will ultimately prevail.

Partly to blame is the widespread disillusionment in government itself, which is almost certainly worsened by the unwillingness of conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to allow votes on popular legislation, including Biden’s Build Back Better package and voting rights protections. For Republicans who have spent a generation arguing that the government is broken, Manchin and Sinema’s willingness to kill popular programs like a child tax credit that cut child poverty by nearly half was an early Christmas present.