Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian; There’s a new feeling in America as kindness drives out cruelty
"But on Tuesday, that discouraging conversation – changed. Not just a little, but radically.
American citizens rose up and showed the world their nation’s truer colors.
They showed it to be a place that values decency. A place capable of choosing diversity, not mocking it. A place strong enough to say “enough, already”.
The global caricature of the ugly American as an ignoramus in thrall to an immoral cult leader got pushed aside in this election that turned both houses of Congress, and many a governor’s office, away from Maga and toward potential reform.
“I think it was about kindness,” reflected my neighbor, a registered nurse and French immigrant, as I encountered her on her dog walk on Wednesday morning.
In a pre-election piece titled “America’s Clarifying Moment”, the writer and academic Stephen Beschloss summarized the stakes. This is “when we find out whether our fellow Americans really are committed to putting an end to the reckless destruction, the ceaseless corruption, the lawless abuse of our democracy and the utter indifference to the people’s struggle to survive”.
Turns out enough Americans were not merely committed. They were passionate, turning out in droves to elevate the kind of people that Maga had so blithely trashed.
Among the victors: a Black female governor in Georgia, a gay senator in New Hampshire, a Muslim senator in Michigan, and a Native American female governor of New Mexico.
“The sheer diversity of the winners tonight is staggering,” observed Jennifer Senior of the Atlantic."
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