Listen: Ali Velshi Lays Out The Path Forward

November 5, 2024, was very different from November 8, 2016. The first time Donald Trump was elected felt like an accident. This time, there was so much at stake. Women are dying, the planet is burning, wars are being waged and democracy is on the brink. Ali Velshi is certain that there are dark days ahead of us.

But there is, and always is, a path forward. The United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776, and yet it did not know what the outcome of the Revolutionary War would be. We had no idea in 1861 as state fought against state how long that fight would take or if the ideals and principles of freedom and justice would survive the Civil War.

We only know how these struggles end in hindsight, not in the midst of it. History is steeped with examples of people who fought through darkness and perhaps didn’t know what we do today — that defeat paves the way for triumph.

Velshi remembers when his father first ran for local office in 1981, a new citizen who had escaped apartheid and was now enjoying the freedom to be politically engaged for the good of his nation. Civic engagement doesn’t always mean triumph, and it rarely heralds such threats as the ones we are facing today. But that doesn’t mean we give up and stop trekking the path forward toward a stronger democracy and more perfect union.