Two days before Election Day I had popped into a neighbourhood market in northern Manhattan. It’s a small, barely noticeable storefront that in pre-pandemic times was a wine bar and cafe, forced quickly to reinvent itself during Covid. Today it functions as a co-op, partnering with farmers in the Hudson River Valley and fishmongers on Long Island to provide locally sourced food. Members are allowed in one at a time, by appointment only, where for a strict 15 minutes, the shop is all yours.

“I’m so ready for this election to be over,” co-owner Sarah told me. “But I know I’m going to experience this wave of disappointment that we’ve only managed to elect Joe Biden.”

When I visited the co-op for my weekly appointment three days after supporters of Donald Trump violently besieged the nation’s Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the election certification, the mood was decidedly different.