Here are the top ten moments of 2025 that actually gave me hope.
10. Indiana Republicans rejected Trump’s pressure to gerrymander even when faced with threats.
9. California voters passed prop 50 to cancel out the GOP gerrymandering in Texas.
8. Hundreds of lower level judges ruled against the Trump administration on things like illegal National Guard deployments, deportations, and the withholding of federal funds. The Supreme Court has reversed dozens of those orders, but most of them are still standing.
7. A case at the First Circuit Court of Appeals that could help end billionaire influence on our elections. This effort began as a main ballot measure that capped donations to superPACs at $5,000. And if successful, it gives other states a blueprint to weakening or even ending Citizens United.
6. Tied are the two largest single day protests in U.S. history, where between 6 and 7 million people took to the streets to protest executive overreach on No Kings Day.
5. In almost every election across the country, there were double digit swings away from the extreme right.
4. Chicago moms started a trend of walking the children of undocumented people to school so that their parents didn’t have to risk ICE detention.
3. Across the country, people documented ICE activity on their phones, risking personal safety. Without their bravery, we would not have the full picture of ICE’s brutal, unnecessary tactics.
2. Another tie, between those who donated to support the victims of the LA fires, and those who donated to food banks to help feed people during the government shutdown. More than half a billion dollars was donated for fire relief, and countless individuals gave essential items like clothing to families who lost everything. And food banks across the country saw an 1800% surge in donations when people needed it the most.
1. More studies are showing that immunotherapy artificially engineered natural killer cells, T-cells, are destroying cancers once thought unbearable. These advances in boosting the body’s own immune system, rather than just relying on chemotherapy, are putting us closer to a cure for cancer than ever before.
In short, 2025 has shown that even when the government fails us, we refuse to fail each other. And also science rules.
Ben Sheehan is a political commentator and digital creator. He specializes in civics education, which is showcased in his latest book, What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work. Check out his Substack, Politics Made Easy.
