“There are signs of hope, even if they are small and inconstant. Illiberal populists, as it turns out, are pretty lousy at governing, especially during a crisis that demands a steady and stoic engagement with science. In the United States, in particular, voters saw a mismanaged pandemic become a politicized catastrophe that eventually inflicted a 9/11-level death toll almost every day, and as of this writing has killed more Americans than combat in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam combined.”