Jan.17

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Looking Back at 2023, Part V: Best Event

Last week, we had Most Deplorable Person and Most Admirable Person. Yesterday, we had the Worst Event, and now it's the best events of 2023.

First, some runners-up:

Personal Triumphs

J.H. in Peterborough, ON, Canada: The best thing that happened in my world is the blossoming of my 2-year-old grandson.

R.L. in Alameda, CA: The best thing that happened last year was my oldest child graduating from Eastern Michigan University with a BA and a teaching certificate and getting a job teaching 5th grade in Dearborn Heights, MI. They are off the family payroll and paying for their own life! Woot!

P.G. in Arlington, VA: Phish performs Gamehenge in its entirety for the first time in 29 years. This affects such a minuscule portion of the population that even I agree it should not make your list. But, for the phans who care, this was nigh upon a miracle and just a beautiful and inspiring moment. We assumed this musical project, created by Trey Anastasio in the late 80's as his senior project at Goddard College in Vermont, was permanently shelved. But it was dusted off, reimagined for a stage production with dozens of performers, and presented with gusto for a deeply grateful (and very surprised) crowd. For me, it's restored a bit of my "anything is possible" optimism that's been sorely lacking for years now. I needed that to face 2024.

Sporting Matters

B.J.L. in Ann Arbor, MI: The feel good thing of 2023 is that the Detroit Lions played well this year and actually made the playoffs.

J.W. in Kansas City, MO: Damar Hamlin's return to football (and life) after a cardiac arrest at a game in January. He not only came back, but his experience made him an advocate for CPR training and automatic defibrillators (AEDs).

O.B. in Milwaukee, WI: The Packers crushing the Cowboys in the playoffs. How 'bout them Cowboys?

Unionization

D.A. in Brooklyn, NY: The rebirth of the union movement in the USA. Writers Guild, SAG, UAW, Teamsters (UPS), SEIU (Kaiser Permanente, et al.) and others struck or posed credible strike threats that wrested significant gains from the corporate fat cats. Doctors, grad students, baristas continued to organize. Polls show >70% of the public is now pro-union. Solidarity Forever! Power To The Workers!

International Affairs

S.A.K. in Karnataka, India: Baby steps towards improving Saudi-Iran diplomatic relations. There is a long way to go before things can be termed normal on that front. The initial steps, though, are very encouraging.

This alone has the potential to reduce and even eliminate U.S. influence in the Middle East and consequently make that region much more peaceful than it is today. Both of those have to count as awesome things.

M.S. in Washington, DC: The Polish election. The recovery of a country from nearly a decade of nationalist rule is a hopeful sign for a global turn back towards liberalism.

J.M. in Geneva, Switzerland: The change of government in Poland. It shows that a rational coalition with a centrist core can prevail against a populist incumbent with anti-democratic tendencies. The non-change of government in Spain was a close second, for similar reasons.

The News

C.W. in Visalia, CA: The best thing that has been happening in our last year of tragedy is the PBS NewsHour. The staff of the NewsHour have fearlessly delivered the truth about climate change, the Hamas/Israeli war, and our dysfunctional political system. I love the way they finish each hour with a positive story about people who strive to make our world a better place.

And the top five:

5. Ukraine

J.M. in New Glasgow, NS, Canada: Ukraine is still independent.

I'll go on record as having had zero faith in the ability of Ukraine to withstand Russia's invasion. I was convinced (and told anyone who would ask) that the entire affair would be over in a matter of weeks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be dead, and some puppet would be running Ukraine. Russia was just too big a country with too powerful a military and Ukraine was much smaller. I'm happy to be wrong and now, almost 2 years after starting, Ukraine is still holding on. Yes, there are problems and the "peace" achieved may not be everything they want, but compared to my expectations that Ukraine is still independent is remarkable.

You simply cannot allow any country, least of all one with Vladimir Putin in charge, to invade other sovereign countries and start naked wars of aggression in this day and age. It is the responsibility of every person to resist and to send a clear message that it won't be tolerated. I'll say, despite some bellyaching in the U.S., most of the world has been very supportive and responded appropriately. No dictator like Putin ever stops until they are stopped.

D.M. in Alameda, CA: Ukraine has not lost the war.

K.K. in Northridge, CA: President Biden has not abandoned Ukraine.

4. The Economy

T.F. in Craftsbury, VT: The Fed and administration managed a soft landing for the economy, laying the groundwork for a possible major shift in popular opinion in '24 and thereby undercutting a significant (if specious) argument for returning Bonespur Donny Jonny to the White House.

S.B. in Los Angeles, CA: The soft landing from the inflation crisis in the United States is the best thing to happen in 2023. As the largest economy in the world, the U.S. drives the world economy and a healthy U.S. economy is not only good for us Americans but for people around the world, relatively speaking.

D.R. in Charlotte, NC: Social Security cost of living increase of 8.7% at the beginning of 2023. This helped my wife and me through the year.

3. Medical Advances

B.S. in Huntington Beach, CA: The development of a vaccine that protects against malaria is, in my opinion, the most positive development of 2023. If successful as the trials indicate, the new vaccine could conceivably save over 400,000 lives a year. If effective as indicated, malaria could be reduced to a minor pestilence by 2030. Truly amazing.

M.M. in San Diego: Last year gifted the world with two medical miracles: an affordable malaria vaccine and a cure for sickle cell anemia. Millions, especially in underserved countries, will be spared difficult, debilitating disease provided the world does the right thing and spends some money.

R.M. in Baltimore, MD: The possible breakthrough drug that may lessen Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's researchers have been working tirelessly for decades with almost no progress. Finally, there is something partway through the pipeline that will make the condition more livable. The world is aging rapidly, Alzheimer's respects no borders, and its incidence will increase rapidly over the years.

P.B. in Gainesville, FL: Stunning progress in medical technology, e.g., mRNA vaccines and gene therapies that have been in the works for a few years. To take one example: Since forever, a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis for a young person was effectively a death sentence when they reached their 20s or so. I recently learned that CF is now pretty much treatable. There are many other examples: COVID, flu, and RSV vaccines; malaria treatments; new cancer drugs; hope for Alzheimer's, and gene modification therapy for a variety of ills. Impressive!

M.S. in Missouri City, TX: FDA approved gene-editing treatment for humans—opening up many possibilities in the eradication of genetic diseases.

2. Trump Legal

B.H. in Wyandotte, MI: The 91 indictments of Donald Trump. Whether any of these result in a conviction, at least people tried to bring him to justice for his various crimes. Republicans have either ignored these as inconsequential or attacked them as being totally partisan, but they are there for the historical record. Just like his impeachments. If our democracy actually survives this assault by Trump and the alt-right and brings him down, it should serve as a reminder for any future autocrats desiring to subvert our democracy that it will not go quietly into the night.

D.E. in Lancaster, PA: There were actually five Best Events of 2023 and they occurred on March 30, June 8, July 27, August 1 and August 14. Those are, of course, the dates that Donald Trump was indicted. I pick the 91 criminal indictments of Trump not because I detest him and everything he stands for with a white hot passion, but rather for what those indictments represent. For me, they stand not only as the best thing of 2023 but also as probably one of the top ten great moments in American history; they show that we are a nation of laws and that no one person is above those laws. The part of me that hates the Uber-Deplorable Trump got its satisfaction with the election of Joe Biden and the electoral defeat of Don the Con. The indictments, on the other hand, are a balm to my soul. The federal and Georgia indictments related to Trump trying to subvert the election demonstrate that at least part of our society is willing to fight for the idea of democracy and to disavow tyranny and authoritarianism. It is, after all, the subject that so many pixels and so much ink have died for in the past year, and will continue to die for in the coming years and beyond.

G.A. in Carnation, WA: Jack Smith's indictments of Donald Trump finally gave pessimistic Democrats some hope that somewhere, somehow, Orange Jesus will be held accountable for something (like an attempt to subvert our democracy with an insurrection in our nation's capital).

1. Abortion

B.H. in Southborough, MA: The numerous abortion reaffirming election results. In a country where the system is indeed rigged against the majority of voters, this issue sparks massive turnout even in red states. It will likely cost the GOP a large chunk of the political power they are so desperately trying to retain.

S.W. in New York City, NY: The abortion votes in Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia—all winners for women, and a little comfort and re-assurance that not everyone in America is nuts.

K.F. in Framingham, MA: The overwhelming victory for reproductive rights in Ohio was at least one of the best things to happen in 2023, if not the best. It demonstrated that even in red states, the issue of protecting reproductive rights is still a strong motivator to generate turnout and that the Dobbs decision is a gift that should keep on giving to the blue team so long as they bravely continue to put it front and center. This was an especially sweet victory after the GOP tried to make it harder to get this item on the final ballot.

M.M. in Windermere, FL: The best thing that happened in 2023 was proof that the issue of individual rights moves the populace to action. That is, the election-over-performance of Democrats and the huge margins that support legal abortion, evidenced by the success of the abortion rights campaigns and referendums.

I purchased a pink t-shirt, with a woman's face in red, white and blue, above the phrase "Second Class Citizen." If women get wise to this outrageous shackle of oppression, they will understand this and rise up to vote in vast numbers.

This gives me hope for 2024.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in!

Also, we made an error last week. When we were tallying the Best Person votes, we did not realize that the last line on the spreadsheet was not visible. And so, we inadvertently excluded the person who should have been #3. Let's rectify that:

3. Volodymyr Zelenskyy

K.S. in Baltimore, MD: A total hero, a true servant, a brave leader. Our world needs more like him.

M.W. in Huntington, NY: For most admirable, I'd nominate Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

At first glance, he seemed so ill-prepared for such a situation, but for over a year, he has consistently showed true leadership. Leaders around the world should be taking notes.

And while wars tend to make great presidents of those who rise to the occasion, that's not true for all—ahem, George W. Bush.

B.C. in Phoenix, AZ: Since I chose Vlad "Hitler Redux" Putin as Most Deplorable, I gotta choose the flip side, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, as the Most Admirable. For justification, let's set aside the whole deal about him starting out as an actor/comedian and advancing to leading a nation in a successful (so far) defiance of a major world military power. No, we'll concentrate on the real reason he's so admirable: Since the war started, the guy has rarely, if at all, been seen with a necktie.

I hate neckties. Their only purpose is to give your political and business opponents a ready tool with which to lynch you.

Next up, we'll look back at the year Electoral-Vote.com had in 2023; if you'd like to comment, there is still time. Send a message to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line "Good Job" if you would like to point out an item, or anything else, we did well; or send a message to comments@electoral-vote.com with the subject line "Bad Job" if you have criticism of a particular item or anything else. Please do remember to include your initials and location. (V & Z)