We have learned how precarious democracy is, how easily fear and anger can be invoked to manipulate a population. We have learned about the importance of voting, even if it means choosing a candidate we regard as the lesser of two evils rather than our number-one purely pristine perfect preference. We have learned that a democracy rests not only on its laws and institutions but also on its norms and values—and on the consensus of its citizenry that those norms and values are worth upholding. We have learned that heeding the rules of civility, decency, and diplomacy is a sign not of a nation’s
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