Covid has made America more divided than ever

I knew when I boarded the plane home to America on Boxing Day that I was heading to an unhappy place. There may be lots of shortages in the United States right now, but anger is on tap (so say the think pieces). Americans are ‘furious’, ‘divided’, we’re told, and the ‘two sides’ are completely incapable of engaging in civil discourse with each other and have been for quite some time.

I’d been reading about America’s woes constantly and had heard so many first-hand accounts from friends, family and old colleagues about the abject misery that characterises politics right now. But you have to be in America to really feel it. I was blown away by the extent to which discourse has become polarised. It’s not just rage that seems to permeate throughout the country: it’s a sense of hopelessness too.

Due to quarantine rules, testing regimes, and an explicit travel ban in the UK that went on for months last year, my visits back home have been limited.