In the United States, it’s common but wistful thinking to believe politics can be separated from the rest of our lives. You may “want to keep politics out of it”—out of conversations with friends and family, out of pop culture, or sports. But to understand the mood in America, and what that means on an individual level, we need to think of politics as something that is inseparable from everything else. Mental health can be a political outcome, and mental health can influence politics.