We have excised a tumor, but the cancer still remains.
It will be tempting, once Trump has finally been ripped from the levers of power, to believe that everything is ok.
It isn't.
The conditions that led to Trump being elected in the first place haven't gone away.
They've gotten worse.
We haven't made our way back to zero. We're still in the red.
It is reliving to the soul and a respite that we are not being dragged further down.
Celebrate that.
We must embrace our successes and recognize the fruits of our labor.
But we must confuse victory in battle with victory in war.
Tomorrow, it will look like we have made our way back to 2015.
Seriousness in the White House, no Executive support of supremacists.
But we haven't.
We did not win societal change
We did not stage a revolution
We did not repair the nation
We did not undo Trumpism
We did not gain civil rights
We did not restore our standing.
What we did win was space and time.
We won space to breathe.
We won time for scientists and medical professionals to work.
We won the room we need to do the rigorous planning necessary to build on these victories.
The sword of Damocles no longer hangs above us and we have won a lower heart rate.