I was helping to pick our mayor and local officials: our comptroller, who manages the city’s money; our public advocate, who argues on residents’ behalf; and our City Council member, who helps make laws.

I selected among candidates who said they want to protect people from gun and domestic violence, from predatory landlords and developers, and from police brutality. It was also the chance to do something I don’t think we talk about enough in the Trump era: to fully define where we stand on such issues, instead of merely what we stand against, and to acknowledge that local fights are just as important as national ones.

To be sure, we have to call out a president who is busy dismantling the State Department and starting a culture war against racial, ethnic and religious minorities. But it’s just as important to decide what we’d like in his place. Watching the New Jersey and Virginia election results last month, when we elected candidates from a broad variety of racial and cultural backgrounds, leaders who want to make government a positive force in American life instead of using it to take away citizens’ rights and income, was an empowering moment.

It felt a lot like patriotism, in part because it seemed as if we were taking steps toward a country that doesn’t have to be ham-handedly controlled by a white supremacist who can’t stand many of his fellow citizens.

For so long, the discussion about patriotism has been about respecting the national anthem and the flag — a backward focus on what Americans accomplished in the past. But now, true patriotism is a forward-looking, uniting force, built on a belief that all our citizens deserve civil rights, due process and the representation of our diverse groups in governance. It is an insistence on believing in the worth and contributions of all our citizens, not just one slice of them.

Trump’s attacks on black people are awful — but they are also, when paired with his growing unpopularity, reminders that he doesn’t represent all of America. Thanks to outspoken black people, and protests, and liberal activism, and the recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey, I believe in my country and its ability to keep fighting.