An unpopularity contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump looms

By Idrees Kahloon

Ask voters how they really feel and you find that the state of America’s union is unusually dismal. In September 2023, when the Pew Research Centre asked Americans to reflect on their country’s politics, 65% of respondents said that they were always or often exhausted; 55% said they were typically driven to anger; just 10% expressed frequent flashes of hope; only 4% found themselves regularly excited. When asked to describe politics in a single word, many plumped for divisive, corrupt, messy or bad. The coming year is likely to bring even greater malaise.