Donald Trump was elected in 2016, not 1972. Social media has stoked divisions and empowered white male chauvinists. Income inequality is far worse than it was in the 1970s. And in the 1970s, the house and Senate passed a bipartisan bill for free, universal childcare (Nixon unexpectedly vetoed it), which there hasn't been the political will to do since. Social progress has never been a straight line. Sure, some things are better now, but a lot is actually worse. Everything I highlighted was already present and/or trending before Covid. Covid merely exacerbated and therefore illuminated the problems.