America is always in a state of flux. The country is an eternal experiment, aiming at evolution, betting on its own betterment.

It has its dark sides — racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia — but it clings to the idea, the fairy tale, that change and progress are not only possible, but they are intrinsic to the dream that is this nation.

And, every so often, a period arises in which some of that dream manifests and change is clear and indisputable, a leap forward for a people.

The 2010s were just such a decade.

To be sure, there were some sobering and surprising developments.

Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement, the Women’s March, March For Our Lives and climate activists illustrated an awakening and rebirth of protest movements in this country, against the intransigence of governments hopelessly linked to powerful industries and the gross imbalances of power between races and gender, and gross abuses of power by the state.