20 good things that happened in 2017

17. Some elections turned out just fine

The results of the 2016 U.S. election and further elections in 2017 showcased the growing presence of far-right extremists, xenophobia and everything else dark about human nature. That said, it wasn’t totally bad. For all that we saw the rise of the harsh and selfish in international politics, it was not a given outcome.

Take the French presidential election, which concluded in May. Centrist Emmanuel Macron became president of France after a tense election pitted him against the far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen. Indeed, he won by a decisive margin, though Le Pen’s populist National Front party had gained a worrying amount of attention for their anti-immigrant and inwardly focused stances.

Later in the year, Doug Jones surprised nearly everyone by winning a Senate election against Roy Moore, the Republican candidate. Moore had been accused of sexual assault against underage girls while he worked as an assistant district attorney in Alabama during the 1970s.

However, with the support of the president behind Moore and the traditionally deep-red politics of Alabama, few expected that Jones, a Democrat, would win. Jones, a former federal prosecutor, had sought punishment for two Klansmen who had murdered four young girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama during the 1960s.

Thanks in large part to black voters, the Alabama electorate made a surprising turn and selected Jones for office. In his election speech, Jones said, “Alabama has been at a crossroads. We have been at crossroads in the past. And unfortunately, we have usually taken the wrong fork. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, you took the right road”.