Trump's defeat last year was Dunkirk, not D-Day

So whatever the limitations, mistakes, and failures that have marked the Biden presidency, we should be grateful—very grateful—that Joe Biden is president and that Donald Trump was not. There is no reason for any ambiguity or ambivalence on that score.

But honesty also compels us to say that victory, or even reasonable confidence in ultimate victory, in the fundamental cause of saving our democracy, remains far away.

One could put it this way: We might have hoped—who could not have hoped?—that November 3, 2020, might be our D-Day: a decisive moment, an inflection point, a key achievement that would have signaled a forthcoming decisive success.

But it turns out that November 3, 2020, was more like Dunkirk—an escape from a terrible outcome, an occasion to heave a huge sigh of relief, but ultimately a success that simply allows us to regroup and gather our energies and forces for a longer fight.