Astrology can explain this very easily. Transiting Neptune has been opposing the US natal Neptune since precisely March 2020. We are unable to discern if we are deceiving ourselves or are deceived by others or both, logical discrimination must have gone on vacation, and even worse, many are caught unaware of it. I have explained and predicted this phenomenon in my US Pluto return YouTube video series.

Since Neptune orbit takes approximately 165 years around the Sun, I’d like to refer you to history the last time Neptune was around the 22º of Pisces. It was between 1856 and 1858. In the US there was a time of crisis and panic. 
 

“A financial panic in the fall of 1857 brought on what turned out to be a short-lived but intense depression. Causes of the panic stemmed partly from the international economy and partly from domestic overexpansion…This speculative house of cards came crashing down in September 1857. The failure of one banking house sent a wave of panic through the financial community. Banks suspended specie payments, businesses failed, railroads went bankrupt, construction halted, factories shut down. Hundreds of thousands of workers were laid off, and others went on part-time schedules or took wage cuts, just as the cold winter months were arriving.”1

“3 B. Douglass & Co. pointed out that the panic had occurred during a prosperous harvest and

attributed the "financial revulsion" to "terror inspired by a trifling cause or misapprehension of danger." The Banking Superintendent of New York, James Cook, described the panic as "without apparent reason derived from past experience." Some facts were consistent with the view that the crisis was an unnecessary product of mismanagement or fear.”2

"March 4, 1857 - James Buchanan is sworn into office as the 15th President of the United States. His tenure as President would be marred by the question of slavery and a compromise stance that would neither alleviate nor eradicate the intractable question from American society."

"March 6, 1857 - The United States Supreme Court rules in the Dred Scott decision, 6-3, that a slave did not become free when transported into a free state. It also ruled that slavery could not be banned by the U.S. Congress in a territory, and that blacks were not eligible to be awarded."

"June 23, 1858 - With strife between pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans escalating to dramatic chaos, the 2nd Infantry and 3rd Artillery regiments under the command of Captain Nathanial Lyon attempt to restore order during the "Bleeding Kansas" campaign."3

The Secession sentiment was brewing in the southern spirit. Their economy was buttressed by slavery, and they wouldn't risk to be deprived of it. As history tells, they were determined to fight for it, and they did. 

Doesn't this ring a bell today? Coincidentally, in case you forgot, George Floyd was murdered May 25, 2020 and everybody knows the corollary.

Still, a louder bell may ring when you read this. 

“Historians such as James Huston have revealed additional causes of the panic. In his 1988 book The Panic of the 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War, Huston argued that the crisis was not only caused by the failure of Ohio Life, it was also a consequence of the ending of the Crimean War in 1856.”

“Between 1854 and 1856, the Crimean War interrupted Russian grain exports to Europe and increased the demand for wheat from the American West. This increase in demand, in turn, increased wheat prices and facilitated the inflow of migration to the West. While this was not the sole cause of land speculation in the American West, the demand for American grain (along with the California gold rush) played an important part.”4

And the history themes resonate crystal clear. The Russians are now against Ukraine, for the same reason they were in Crimea before, with similar consequences for the distribution of grains, which in turn affects now the whole world economy, not only the US,

The events may be different, but the subjacent sentiments and issues are the same. The controversy regarding maintenance of the economy, financial matters, the country solvency, resources and assets, production of goods threatens the Union. In a similar plane, the two political parties still differ about similar issues. And the polarization is now at a tipping point where the intransigence could throw the nation into chaos or another civil war. 

Not by chance does this economic turmoil coincide with the last Pluto return in two years. This time is an almost conjunction. Pluto Retrograde is presently approaching the 27º??54' where will station direct on October 10, 2023. The US natal Pluto is at 27º??33', just 21' away, but the conjunction is still operative as demonstrated by the underway developments in Congress dealing with the budget (second house of the natal chart) and a government shutdown threat. Pluto station at that degree will last from Septembre 21 till October 31 like a drill, intensifying the energetic and symbolic influence.

Furthermore, hopefully you have realized that these economic and financial matters are intrinsically tied to the country's values (second house of the zodiac). For those, we need to refer to a chart with Sagittarius ascendant, a preachy warrior riding towards the unreachable horizon, telling everyone on the way how to behave and what to do. The dark side of Sagittarius is 'do as I say, not as I do', but in the long run, of course, this philosophy backfires. 

The country's values are founded on the extreme power of its institutions, and resources. Pluto in the second house gives extreme financial power based on the structures of the country, but at the same time, the Pluto kind of power comes, as you know, from his underground Kingdom. Pluto doesn't spare cruelty and violence in his influence, nor is he fond of the middle way, on the contrary, always goes to extremes, extreme cold, extreme hot. Pluto in the second house may incline the chart owner to obtain resources and energy sources by unclear methods and hidden manipulations. Pluto in Capricorn indicates the grip of institutional dominance over others, like in the case of slavery. Capricorn second house defines the values of a pyramidal system where there is an elite that commands with iron fist those under their command, which explains its militarized or otherwise aggressive expansive power (??Pluto) over the world (??Asc). 

By showing the crude reality openly, Pluto return has brought into question all those values, as obsolete, as we have seen in the news since 2020. Pluto has brought out in the open the extreme exertion of power over the people, especially over certain sectors of society, and even over other peoples in the world. Not only that, but thanks to modern media it has been easier to divulge institutional and political corruption, the shortcomings of the public administration be it of resources or finances. All the shadow manifestations of human behavior are exposed for everyone to see, thanks to modern media. 

Should the US continue supporting wars, sending support money to this and that country where corruption is still rampant? Should the US continue increasing its sidereal debt that five or ten generations down the road will keep paying? Should the US continue its interventionist international policy or start taking care of domestic business first? Is the US an authentic union? Why black people and other sectors of the population continue to suffer de facto discrimination? 

That is what is at stake at the moment, not just a budget debate. As a Venusian area, the second house of the zodiac attracts what one desires. 

What are the actual desires of the people in this country?

What does the people want to attract?

Neptune will leave the orb zone of 25º by the end of this year, having done his ‘job’. The results (read consequences) will certainly be felt eventually in 2024 and beyond. Pluto will leave the 27º?? on November 1st, not to return for another 248 years, marking the start of his new cycle. 2024 and onwards will show the outcomes of his work.