I can't help but feel that the state of US politics from 2016 onwards plays a role in this. Many early COVID skeptics who pushed for a more laissez faire style

I can't help but feel that the state of US politics from 2016 onwards plays a role in this. Many early COVID skeptics who pushed for a more laissez faire style of government intervention were also Trump supporters. After the events on 1/6/2020, Trump supporters were even further entrenched as the nation's new bogeyman, and any views they hold as a collective have been systematically cut down the last several years. This is further evidenced in the article, in which literally the _very first line_ is a mild dunk on the GOP. Why do Americans do this? Why must literally any policy decision be chiefly looked at through the lens of Red vs. Blue? This is coming from a Canadian whose frequently frustrated that one can't voice any concerns about COVID policy without being lumped in with a crowd which I otherwise share almost nothing in common with.