🔗 Share this article

Twelve months back, the situation was utterly different. Prior to the national election, considerate citizens could admit the country's serious imperfections – its inequities and inequality – but they continued to see it as the US. A democracy. A land where the rule of law carried weight. A state guided by a honorable and ethical public servant, despite his older age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the land we live in. Individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into vans, occasionally denied due process. The left side of the White House – is undergoing demolition for an obscene dance hall. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities transfer a massive sum of public funds. Armed military personnel are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has practically rid itself of regular press examination as it spends potentially totaling nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, media outlets are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are handled as aristocracy.

“America, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into autocracy and fascism,” a noted author, stated in August. “In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it occurred here.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it's difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we have become, and how quickly it occurred.

However, we know that Trump was legitimately chosen. Following his profoundly alarming first term and following the warnings associated with the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself stated openly he planned to rule as a tyrant just on day one – enough Americans elected him rather than his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality are, it's more daunting to understand that we are just several months under this leadership. Where will three more years of this decline find us? And what if the three years becomes a more extended duration, since there is not anyone to stop this ruler from opting that additional tenure is essential, maybe for national security reasons?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections the coming year which might create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. We have elected officials who are trying to exert certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen currently starting a probe regarding the effort to money grab from the justice department.

And a national vote in the next cycle could initiate the path to healing precisely as the previous vote set us on this disappointing trajectory.

We see countless citizens demonstrating in public spaces throughout communities, as they did recently in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is stirring”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or during the Vietnam war protests or in the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he knows the signs of that awakening and notices it unfolding now. For proof, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to accept the defense department’s demands they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep until certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive of the common good, some brutality so loud, that it is forced but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Possibly he may turn out correct.

At the same time, the big questions persist: can America ever recover? Is it possible to restore its standing globally and its commitment to constitutional order?

Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain indicates that the latter is true; that everything might be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods available.

Personally, working in journalism analysis, that involves pushing media professionals to commit, more completely, to their purpose of holding power to account. For different individuals, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to attempt to persevere.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I experience with students with aspiring reporters, who are equally idealistic and practical, {always