Modern leftist thought, particularly in the mind of an establishment journalist, suffers from a nauseating combination of pretentiousness and banality.
To these, of course, we might add the leftist’s typical hostility to all things good and true.
For instance, in a clip posted Monday to the social media platform X, MS NOW anchor Ali Velshi, who once praised Black Lives Matter rioters even as Minneapolis burned in the background, declared a “deep unease” about the impending 250th anniversary of American independence.
The source of Velshi’s unease? You guessed it: racism.
“Anniversaries are imperfect records of the thing which is being celebrated,” the anchor said at the beginning of a monologue.
From there, Velshi offered what can only be described as a parody of profundity.
“In America’s case, anniversaries often gloss over the racial dynamics underlying much of America’s history and politics,” he added, his voice growing louder and more adamant as his propositions grew more absurd, “issues that remain unsolved because America has never actually fully reckoned with its racist past and its original founding sin of slavery.”
Which do you think Velshi would be more comfortable at: A violent BLM riot or a family, pro-American July 4 cookout?
Riot: 0% (0 Votes)
Cookout: 0% (0 Votes)
Having established his ridiculous premise, Velshi then made an equally ridiculous assertion about America’s upcoming anniversary.
“In one month,” he continued, “America will mark the 250th anniversary of its Founding. Like previous anniversaries, there is a deep unease about this. I feel a deep unease about these celebrations to which I am invited to mark the 250th anniversary of our so-called democracy.”
A dramatic pause ensued. Then, the pearl-clutching liberal Velshi characterized 2026 as another moment of crisis.
“Because,” he said, “this 250th anniversary is taking place during yet another period of deep and fundamental and existential unrest in this country brought on by the country’s unresolved racial politics. That’s what this is.”
MS NOW host Ali Velshi admits feeling “deep unease” about America’s 250th birthday celebration, saying that the US has never “fully reckoned with its racist past.” pic.twitter.com/v3ygapojMP
— Fox News Flash (@FoxNews_Flash) June 1, 2026
How does one even begin to address so much nonsense crammed into 53 seconds of a monologue?
First, we must take note of where Velshi feels uneasy and where he does not. The difference speaks volumes.
During the Black Lives Matter madness of 2020, Velshi reported live from Minneapolis for MS Now back when the outlet was still known as MSNBC.
“This is mostly a protest,” he said in another clip posted to X.
Meanwhile, fires ranged behind him.
“It is not, generally speaking, unruly,” he insisted. “But fires have been started, and there is a crowd that is relishing that.”
Minneapolis, May 2020.
Velshi as fire raged behind him: “This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly.”
Same guy. https://t.co/AP313kJGPE pic.twitter.com/52KZp5gqk1
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 31, 2026
In other words, Velshi apparently felt less “unease” during actual riots than he does at the prospect of celebrating America.
Why might he feel that way? Well, consider his own words.
Velshi referred to the United States as a “so-called democracy.”
Now, constitutional conservatives may rightly quibble with the “democracy” label when applied in dishonest ways, as liberals often apply it. But we need not even address that problem here.
Instead, recall the liberal narrative during President Joe Biden’s administration when they could not stop celebrating what they called “democracy.”
What happened? Does democracy no longer exist? Or, more likely, do liberals like Velshi only believe it exists when they hold power?
The whole thing strikes the veteran observer as pretentious in the extreme. After all, only affluent liberals like Velshi express “deep unease” about ordinary Americans celebrating freedom and independence. In fact, the expression of unease itself gives them access to liberal elite circles.
Of course, what pretentious liberals lack in self-awareness, they make up for in banality. Just listen to the things they say.
“America has never actually fully reckoned with its racist past and its original founding sin of slavery,” Velshi insisted.
Of all the shopworn assertions in modern politics, that one ranks near the top of the list. Somehow, that most unoriginal of thoughts must sound original in Velshi’s head. Otherwise, how could he say it with such emotion in his voice, as if he just treated the audience to a profound observation?
Moreover, every honest person knows that America has reckoned with those things. We have reckoned ’til the cows come home and then reckoned some more.
Thus, to Velshi — and to those who hold Velshi’s view of America — we might pose two questions.
First, where would you have found anti-slavery movements before the American Revolution?
Outside of a few Quakers, anti-slavery activists didn’t exist even in the Anglo-American world, let alone globally. But America’s birth as a nation instantly changed that.
In other words, the principles of the American Founding, infused with the Christianity of the abolitionists, brought freedom to the enslaved.
Second, what would a full reckoning on slavery and racism look like? Would another Civil War do it? Liberals never tell us, and that feels like their entire point. They need to keep the illusion of racism alive, even if they have to fund it themselves.
In 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln delivered what posterity calls the “Gettysburg Address,” the president began with the words “[f]our score and seven years ago.”
Why, while announcing a “new birth of freedom,” did the president return to 1776? Because, of course, he knew that those who fought against slavery in the 1860s did so consistent with the spirit of the American Revolution, not, as Velshi would have us believe, in hostility to it.
Meanwhile, in 2020 BLM rioters destroyed statues of Lincoln. Small wonder Velshi prefers them.
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