Spring of Our Discontent 2022
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War and a deepening economic crisis are making it feel like perpetual winter.
After over two years of uninterrupted non-normalcy, most American adults viewed the dawning of 2022 with askance and a soupçon of skepticism.
In fact, many of America’s children also greeted the new year with somewhat less than optimism, being nearly as beaten down as their adult counterparts by years of staring at a computer screen all day while the world collapsed around them.
Nothing in the world seems to be anxious to get back on track either. For many, their Covid19 experience hinged on whether or not they lived in a red state or a blue state. In areas where local governments and school districts keep closures and lock-downs to a minimum, communities and the local economy held up better than average.
In other places, things aren’t even remotely looking as if they might return to normal anytime soon, if ever. In some areas, the heat death of the universe seems likely to occur before things return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
Covid19, and the various mitigation measures state, federal and local governments have taken, have at least given Republicans and Democrats one thing on which they can both agree.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats think Covid19 is done with the U.S. quite yet. For Democrats, it is question of new strains requiring new waves of lock-downs, quarantines, school closures, mask mandates and vaccine passports.
For Republicans, it’s government overreach being likely to produce more strains of the same.
There is a certain justification in feeling that a government given unlimited power during a crisis might find reasons to continue the current crisis and make much more out of potential new ones.
There is a feeling in many quarters that things have gone rather off the rails in past few years. Instead of righting themselves, now every new crisis seems only to magnify and amplify the old ones, making everything exponentially worse in a continuing spiral of malcontent, suspicion and decay.
The U.S. is grappling with severe inflation that is certainly not transitory, as Americans were first assured it was by politicians and media companies. Rent prices have…
