First, the dull but important disclaimer: What appears to be the most likely scenario for the presidential contest now underway is a repeat of the previous one, with similar results.
That’s far from assured, but you’d have to say that’s the trajectory we’re currently on in our narrowly divided nation. Being trapped by negative partisanship in broadly unsatisfactory standoffs was the major political motif of the 2010s and the ’20s so far. But that’s not the bad news. That’s the good news.