I have taken several opportunities in recent years to warn that our fragile democracy has been imperiled by assaults on our governmental institutions and the rule of law. Calls to vigilance may sound alarmist to some, but the erosion of our constitutional norms is not exaggerated, nor is it solely the fault of one side in our deeply divided body politic. Nevertheless, there are reasons to be optimistic for our national future.

Last November's midterm election results were perhaps a harbinger of better things to come, a promising indication that American democracy is still resilient. By and large, candidates who without proof denied the integrity of the 2020 election—and who likewise raised doubts about the very elections in which they were running in 2022—were defeated, suggesting that a majority of voters have little patience for such specious arguments.

The U.S. House of Representatives took an honest look and published unvarnished findings into the causes and consequences of the January 6 insurrection. The Justice Department has been investigating and bringing cases against the alleged perpetrators. And significantly, the least understood and usually least appreciated "Third Branch" of government—the Judiciary—has been upholding the rule of law and reaffirming its own defining feature: independence.