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For more than a decade, it has felt to defenders of free society that we are peddling fruitlessly against the powerful current of authoritarianism. That current grew firmer, more dominant, as it swept in new nations from the shores of democracy and carried the world further toward illiberal abyss.

How many eulogies did we read -- indeed, how many did we write! -- for the free world? And who could blame us?

But it was not our lot. One by one, democratic antibodies have attacked the virus of authoritarianism. Our societies have fought back. People have fought back. Hungary evicted its “strongman” after sixteen years, delivering an electoral victory so decisive that he had no choice but to walk away.

India’s increasingly illiberal government was brought to its knees for the first time in recent memory -- and forced to change course on major policy -- in a wave of youth protests.

And tonight, voters in both Brazil and Serbia decisively rejected members of that global right-wing nationalist cabal -- “Greater MAGA” as Josh Marshall calls it -- as well as their dark visions for society.