After months of foot-dragging, Joe Biden is officially running for reelection — meaning that, barring some unexpected development on either side, Americans are likely in store for a second contest between Biden and Donald Trump.

It’s a disheartening prospect for many reasons, not least because it’s one very few actually seem to want. According to a recent poll, a majority of Americans would rather neither man run, though here the figures somehow look even bleaker for Biden than they do for Trump. A full 70 percent of the electorate purportedly thinks the president should not be seeking reelection, including more than half of Democrats. (The numbers for Trump being 60 and 33 percent, respectively.)

Having already rejigged the primary schedule to be maximally favorable to Biden, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has also announced it won’t be bothering to hold debates at all. What lies ahead will thus be a primary contest in name only. Biden, a candidate who elicits minimal enthusiasm, will be untested in the lead-up to his probable rematch with Trump, and the ideological schisms in American liberalism that were momentarily brought into the open during the 2016 and 2020 presidential primaries will once again be hidden.