Lockdowns provided little protection against Covid but threw tens of millions into extreme poverty, and Biden's first year in office produced similar results as Trump's last – despite the vaccines being increasingly pushed on Americans under his watch.

As the Covid regime ruptures under the tires of big rig truckers, Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has offered a perfect distraction, an opportunity to redirect Americans' fears and hatred elsewhere. After years of open contempt for the 'vaccine-hesitant' and parents unwilling to mask their children outdoors, a fresh target for public opprobrium has emerged in the form of Putin, who – didn't you hear? – is the 'New Hitler' with monomaniacal visions of conquest for all of Europe.

With origins in the Cold War, Americans' distrust for everything Russia has been steadily inflamed over the past decade by a deluge of hostile media coverage, ramped into overdrive by Moscow's military action last week. Pent-up rage toward 'anti-vaxxers' and 'Covid deniers,' then, has been easily pivoted to those challenging the 'official' line on Russia, with mainstream political figures from Mitt Romney to Hillary Clinton likening such dissent to treason.