The keys to the city


Voters in line 2016
(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)

The early signs on this bright afternoon are that the Obama coalition has reassembled to defend and extend his legacy. We will not be finished today, to be sure, but we are repudiating our nation’s worst impulses. We are demonstrating that every vote counts, and that cynicism and smears do not always prevail.

Our nation is forever being reborn. Following the first black president with the first woman president is a fine thing worth pausing to celebrate. It declares that we don’t have a person to waste, as Bill Clinton said 25 years ago. It reminds us that our power is not granted to us but asserted and exercised by us.

To everyone who waited in line for hours to vote: you are the pillars of our republic. You are the founders. In the words of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, the keys to the city are safe with you. Not through you shall we be overcome.

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