Had the situation been reversed, had Joe Biden been laid low, it is not necessary to have the instincts of a Mitch McConnell or a Dominic Cummings to imagine how the Trump campaign would exploit that situation. The denunciations would have been personal, cruel, relentless, and exaggerated. It would also epitomise how much of contemporary politics have become dangerously polarised, especially politics since the internet became such a forum for hate and intolerance.

Pope Francis addressed that ticking timebomb in a new papal letter yesterday. He denounced the “myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalism” gaining so much traction. The encyclical Fratelli Tutti — All Brothers — focused on social justice. “A global community of fraternity based on the practice of social friendship on the part of peoples and nations calls for a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good,” is necessary he said. The pandemic should inspire a rethink of global priorities, the Pontiff suggested. It is not necessary to be a Catholic to agree with him but it is necessary to have some empathy.

It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall when Pope Francis discusses those issues with the increasingly right-leaning leadership of American Catholicism. Epitomised by Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, this strand of Catholicism is hand-in-glove with Trump to roll back social legislation. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, America’s senior Catholic, effectively endorsed Trump when he gave his blessing to the Republican convention in August.

A third of America’s Catholics are Latino and that proportion will grow. They will recognise that the Faustian Pact between their Church and Trump shows no empathy with their lives. Is it any wonder Trump and his acolytes are working so very hard and dishonestly to limit voting rights?