It has been a long and difficult year, with many awful events, lowlighted by the pandemic and the terribly flawed political response to it. I don't mean to minimize that in any way. But in this post, I will focus on some real good that happened in 2020, in the broader world:
- The development of the MRNA and other vaccines is not only an amazing scientific achievement, but one that promises to make vaccine development for other diseases swifter and more efficient in the future. Millions of lives can potentially be saved.
- Despite his despicable denials, Trump got beaten. Removing the worst and most illiberal president of my adult lifetime is a real gain, even though I have plenty of reservations about Biden.
- Trump isn't the only awful politician who lost this year. The same thing happened to Bernie Sanders! At this time last year, there was good reason to fear a Trump vs. Sanders election. That disaster was averted. And early indications suggest Sanders and his ilk will have only modest influence in the new administration.
- Jeremy Corbyn lost the leadership of the British Labor Party, and then got drummed out of the party altogether, because of his links with anti-Semitism. That too is progress. The new Labor leader is no prize, but vastly preferable to Corbyn.
- When the pandemic began, I worried that it and the associated economic crisis would give a big boost to nationalism and xenophobia. That happened in most past similar crisis. So far at least, the evidence indicates that I was wrong about that! Survey data shows immigration and trade remaining steady in the polls in both Europe and the US, and perhaps even gaining a bit in popularity. Things could change on these fronts, especially if the crisis continues too much longer. But if it does not, never have I been happier to be wrong about than about this.
- Speaking of the evils of nationalism, the authoritarian nationalist regimes of China and Russia have clearly taken damage to their international standing as a result of the crisis, and have united much of world opinion against themselves. Putin is facing stronger domestic opposition than at any time in the last decade.
- Israel has signed peace agreements with 4 Arab nations (perhaps more to come). Moreover, in at least some cases this may be more than the "cold peace" they have with Egypt, but may extend to civil society. That's an achievement worth celebrating, even if you are no fan of Bibi Netanyahu's (I certainly am not) or of the Arab regimes in question (a bunch of despots, with the partial exception of Sudan, though far from the worst despots in their respective regions).
- Speaking of Jews and Israel, pandemics and economic crises have often historically led to upsurges of anti-Semitism (for some of the same reasons as they also bolster nationalism). We've seen some of that (including anti-Semitic COVID conspiracy theories), but not very much.
- Here in the US, there has been some real progress on curbing qualified immunity and asset forfeitures - two longstanding forms of law enforcement abuse. There is also, I think, a broader understanding of the need to end racial profiling, though as yet not much has been achieved.
- To a large extent, the courts have maintained "regular" judicial review in the Covid crisis, as opposed to simply deferring to whatever governments want to do. There's room for reasonable disagreement about many specific decisions. But this general pattern bodes well, and makes it less likely that the crisis will lead to permanent erosion of important rights.
- The US will end up with either divided government or (in the event of a 50-50 Senate) very close to it. Historically, that's good for fiscal restraint, which we badly need right now.
- Such libertarian causes as drug legalization, property rights, and economic liberty fared well in referendum initiatives in the November election, while racial preferences fared badly. We can learn from that and build on it.
As noted above, many awful things happened in 2020, and there is potential for more in the new year. I can't say I'm super-optimistic overall. But the above positive developments are worth noting, and hopefully we can build on them!