Brian Michael Jenkins: Covid-19's biggest political casualty might be governability. Politics in the aftermath of the pandemic will increasingly be marked by defiance and intimidation. - NBCNewsTHINK
Pandemics also cause political casualties — former President Donald Trump and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to name just two obvious examples. A U.S. president presiding over a booming economy and low unemployment would ordinarily have enormous political advantages in a re-election campaign, but the pandemic sank the economy and sent unemployment skyrocketing.
I expect that politics in the aftermath of the pandemic will increasingly be marked by defiance and intimidation. Political coalitions will be harder to assemble and hold together. National efforts will be feebler. Extreme beliefs will prevail. The post-pandemic world may be filled with people seeking saviors — fertile ground for false prophets and dictators — or with nihilists who have abandoned hope and believe in nothing. National consensus will be even harder to maintain.
All together, there was little evidence of national rallying during Covid. Health measures became political battlegrounds soon after the first wave of infections.