I tried to convince Australians my country can be good. The belief is returning

November 5, 2026 — 3:48pm

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The first few hours of watching election results come out of the United States are always a bit horrifying. The memory of 2016 looms, with the New York Times’ needle of anxiety becoming more a compulsion than a comfort.

On Monday, I called a friend back in South Carolina, deep in the political weeds, asking how she felt about the Senate race coming up.

“I let myself believe we can win,” she said.

Like the long-suffering fan of any sports team that, no matter how hard you cheer, never seems to win much, we both understood that she meant this as an inoculation against hope. Allowing yourself to believe in the possibility of a win against Donald Trump and the Republicans, whose support had been missed in the polls of 2016 and 2024, felt foolish.

Looking at the results at they arrived from local outlets, the world felt like it was tilting on its axis. Every few minutes, a new race would be called.

Democratic victories across Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota and New Mexico brought with them a new first. States would be represented or led by Democrats for the first time in generations. America saw the first Black woman and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald