Editorial: Our Better Angels Prevailed
By • November 10, 2025 One Comment 198
Could it finally be morning in America?
Well, hello there! We didn’t expect to see you here. And by “you,” we mean the hope, joy and sheer giddiness that greeted the recent election results. Just one year ago, almost to the day, the polls broke our collective heart. Today it seems our democracy has turned a corner. And maybe, just maybe, our long national nightmare is coming to an end.
Now the hard work begins. Will states led by Democrats be able to hold off the cockamamie redistricting or, at the very least, “fight fire with fire,” as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, urged voters. (Republicans are already trying to undo the new House maps.) Can Zohran Mamdani prevail over his city’s massive and sclerotic bureaucracy and bring more affordability and equity to all New Yorkers? (So far, so good.) Can new Govs. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia continue to energize their states while protecting them from the president’s destructive policies?
Trump’s name was not on the ballot, but his poisonous record permeated every campaign rally. The bill for his ICE raids, DOGE firings, incompetence, grift, tariffs, Epstein tapes, East Wing-displacing ballroom and vulgarity has come due. Victorious Democrats and their constituencies will now be demanding payment in full. Not for retribution’s sake, but as a big first step to restoring the rule of law, the Constitution and a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The Nov. 4 contest was a good night for women, who have been under threat since the first Trump regime. Winning candidates rejected anti-abortion extremism by a wide margin and pledged to support early education, affordable childcare, access to reproductive care/contraception and LGBTQ rights.
This reprieve from despair was brought to you by passionate campaign workers and voters and by candidates with a clear, compelling message, along with a level of energy we have not seen in a long time. If we want to keep this momentum going and win our county back from the nihilists now in office, we need more of the same. There’s lots of room for improvement, but — for the moment — it seems that our better angels prevailed.
The real question is whether the progressive wing of the Democratic Party can curb its passions enough to permit a united party in 2026 to present the electorate an economically populist but socially moderate platform (e.g. don’t highlight niche trans, etc. issues) so that it can win over independents and formerly Democratic working class voters. Once in power, those niche issues can perhaps be given greater attention. But out of power the party is irrelevant, as the recent government shutdown just demonstrated.