Helena, Mont., has a new mayor. He is from Liberia.

Wilmot Collins, an African who became an American, is the first Black and the first African to be elected mayor of this small city. When he had recently arrived and spoke out against racism, his house was smeared: “Go back to Africa, KKK.” He called the police. When they arrived, his neighbours were already washing the painted threat away.

LaToya Cantrell was just elected mayor of New Orleans — the first woman and the first Black woman. She is a transplanted Californian who came to prominence through her post-Katrina rebuilding efforts, defeating a field of 18, including several from prominent Louisiana families.

Today, aging white men open their devices with dread, preparing for the shock of the latest stupid man caught behaving stupidly. As revolting as Roy Moore et al are, we must thank Donald Trump for having launched this dramatic sea change in what is acceptable. The silent complicity that greeted Bill Clinton’s transgressions came to a sudden stop, and the trigger for the building roar of anger from newly empowered victims today, was when we saw the infamous Trump Access Hollywood video. So, thank you, Donald.

Another Trump gift has received less attention though. It is the building counterattack on his kind of racist politics by women and non-white men as candidates in campaigns against even well-entrenched Republicans. When Roy Moore’s career — built on homophobia, bigotry and the alleged sexual abuse of minors — comes to a screeching end on Dec. 12, we will celebrate the date. If, for some shameful reason, Alabama voters make him a senator, it will be another Trump gift. Trump’s sly half endorsement will have locked a heavy ball and chain on his and the GOP’s ankles for years.

The triumphs of Collins and Cantrell are a powerful reminder of why American democracy has survived slavery, civil war and rampant political corruption. American voters can and do push back when offered a better choice of leader. And, increasingly, those leaders are younger, more progressive, non-white, women and men.

The Democratic sweep in Virginia was not altogether surprising, but the background of many of the candidates was: the first Asian woman, the first two Latina women, the first trans woman, and the first African-American woman. Across the country, the pattern was repeated: newcomers, especially women and non-white men, successfully challenged establishment candidates.

In Canada, we have seen some growth in women and visible minority candidates, but less in the numbers elected. Equal Voice, the women in politics advocacy group, reports that nearly one-in-three candidates were women in 2015, up from one-in-four a decade earlier. But women MPs are still stuck at less than 25 per cent, up little since 1997. We do have a Sikh as a national party leader, and three governments with gender-balanced cabinets, each impossible goals in the United States.

Meanwhile, on the global stage, cool relations are warming and stalled deals given new life. The TPP countries have relaunched their Pacific trade agreement. That Trudeau, supported by Mexico, demanded further changes to the draft got a lot of attention. What didn’t was that Canada’s somewhat strained relations with Mexico under the previous regime have grown into a mutual defence pact on NAFTA. Each has now made private commitments that they will not allow America to divide them into separate bilateral bargaining rivals. That was not clear a year ago. Today it is certain. Again, a gift of Donald Trump.

Despite Merkel’s wobbles and Macron’s newbie missteps, France and Germany are rebuilding their traditional alliance, focused on reforming EU institutions, working closely for the first time in two decades — again, Trump. China is moving to be, improbably, the global champion of the world network of trade alliances as Trump has, incredibly, left the stage empty for them to occupy.

One of the oldest verities of political life is that politics is always a pendulum, most often swinging gently across a centrist resting point. When it swings wildly away from that position, you know it will swing strongly back in the other direction. Another is that nothing is so powerful in promoting unity as a despised common enemy.

The damage caused by the election of a corrupt, bigoted American president is real. But, in the ironies of political life, we are now seeing some of the unanticipated benefits. Thank you, Donald.

Robin V. Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group, was an NDP strategist for 20 years.

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