We can show them how it's done

We have to remember how to act in a democracy if we expect it to last, and for a while there, it seemed we might not be able to do that. But it could be that those troublesome signs are waning, even if our troubles aren’t.

Maybe it’s just that the day’s news is not quite so relentlessly pessimistic, or perhaps the rhetoric of our national politics has cooled off a degree or two.

Or maybe it’s just...