This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 28 episode of “The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi.”

On Wednesday evening, just days before the midterms, we saw a split screen of the politics of the past and the politics of the present.

In Ohio, President Donald Trump once again gave an ugly and rambling speech, repeating racist remarks about Muslim politicians and calling for the prosecution of others, while stumping for and defending a candidate who refuses to apologize for an attack ad that exploited his opponent’s experience as a child rape victim.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, former President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail to deliver one of his trademark speeches, designed to energize voters and to reinforce their beliefs in small-d democratic values.

Obama’s remarks also served as a scathing rebuke of the current president and his politics of grievance, making the case that the country needs to “rediscover our North Star:”

We also need to rediscover what’s best in us, because if we don’t return to some of those mighty precious values Dr. King was talking about, we will continue to fester in anger and division. And I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being angry, and I’m tired of being divided. I want friendship and neighborliness and joy and generosity. I want everybody rolling up their sleeves in the common enterprise of rebuilding America. I want everybody handing our country and our world off to our kids a little better than they are right now. That’s what I want. That’s what you want.

Obama’s re-emergence might stir up bittersweet feelings for some of us who preferred a time when the nation was not led by an administration that had practiced deliberate cruelty and exploited Americans’ differences for personal and political gain.

For many of us, the former president is still a reminder of a more decent time in America: when the people running the federal government believed that it should serve the people; when America’s standing in the world was unrivaled; when our allies could trust us and we did not bow down to autocratic regimes or cozy up to war criminals.

Obama’s return to the campaign trail and his continued ability to galvanize voters by reminding them of the values that truly make this country great does not have to be bittersweet. It can be a reminder of who we are. It can be an incentive to fight to reset the moral compass of our nation, to rebuild the institutions that Trump and his band of billionaire oligarchs have been dismantling, and to repair the alliances that keep America safe, secure and prosperous.

The Obama era was not a century ago. Believe it or not, it ended less than 10 years ago. Obama’s still here. You’re still here.

In this moment, I’m reminded of a conversation I had a few days after the 2024 presidential election with Timothy Snyder, a distinguished history professor. At that point, the presidential race had been called for Trump, and half of the country was reckoning with the idea of his vengeful return to the White House.

But back then, Snyder had this advice for anyone who was feeling hopeless: While the circumstances around you might change, you don’t have to change with it. More than that, you have the choice to resist the changes this administration tries to impose on you, your country and your values.

“Freedom means you decide who you are,” he said. “And when things change around you, you continue to be that person.” Snyder’s words continue to resonate, and two years later, in the run-up to these crucial midterms, he has another reminder for us.

In a new piece on his Substack, “Thinking About,” the historian identified myriad things that could cause Americans to be disheartened right now but, in typical Tim Snyder fashion, he lands on six words that encapsulate all that needs to happen in the next six days: “All of this can be solved.”

We still have agency. We still have the vote. More than 42 million people have already cast a ballot in this year’s elections, surpassing the early-voter turnout for the 2018 midterms. At this rate, there’s a good chance that it will surpass the early-voter turnout for the 2022 midterms.

And that, according to Snyder, is how all of this can be solved.

“Only a government can act to resolve this problem, but it has to be a government animated by people who care about freedom,” he wrote. “Government animated by liberty can break up monopolies, government can tax centibillionaires, government can regulate media and social media platforms. All of this can be solved.”

Snyder argues that a better future is still possible, even as powerful figures attempt to push the country toward a darker one: “A better future, a far better future, can replace the dystopias for which our oligarchs now so openly long. To get there, we will have to exercise the very rights that they now so openly hate.”

Allison Detzel contributed.

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