After all the ugliness of Donald Trump and this misbegotten campaign, let’s try to focus on something positive and uplifting. And that’s this:

America has elected and re-elected its first black President. And now America is about to elect its first woman to be President. That’s certainly worth celebrating. It’s overdue, of course, but the fact is that the moment is arriving, and we should be joyous about it.

Hillary Clinton is a real person. Sure, she’s flawed, and she’s shown some regrettable lapses in judgment and character here and there. Most of us, even ones not running for the White House, have done the same. But the three debates this year have shown us some important things.

She is an intelligent, well-prepared, experienced person who understands policy issues, who is incredibly calm and poised under pressure, and who has a career which shows a sincere and continuing dedication to a variety of issues, from ensuring women’s rights to defeating racial injustice. She is more than competent, she is good.

Not only that, but she has a faith and belief in those core issues which tell us she isn’t about the moment as much as she is in it for long haul. For our future. For America’s future. She has won a hard-fought nomination from her party, she leads comfortably in electoral polls. There’s no “rigging” there, just facts. And let’s end by quoting New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman:

“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Hillary Clinton is only where she is through a random stroke of good luck. She’s a formidable figure, and has been all along.”