Twelve months back, the environment was completely separate. Prior to the US presidential election, reflective citizens could acknowledge the nation's significant faults – its inequities and imbalance – but they could still perceive it as the United States. A democracy. A land where legal governance meant something. A country headed by a respectable and decent leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and increasing frailty.
These days, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the land we reside in. Persons believed to be unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and forced into vehicles, at times denied due process. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed to build a lavish ballroom. The president is persecuting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding the justice department hand over a massive sum of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are deployed into American cities on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the Department of War, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses possibly reaching close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Colleges, attorney offices, news companies are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.
“The United States, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the limit into autocracy and fascism,” an American historian, stated in August. “Ultimately, swifter than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”
Every morning starts to new horrors. And it's hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the speed at which it has happened.
Nevertheless, we know that Trump was duly elected. Even after his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the alerts associated with the knowledge of the conservative plan – following the president personally declared plainly he planned to act as an autocrat solely at the start – sufficient voters selected him rather than his Democratic opponent.
While alarming as the present situation may be, it's more daunting to recognize that we’re only several months into this administration. What will three more years of this deterioration find us? And what if that timeframe turns into a more extended duration, as there is no one to stop this ruler from opting that another term is required, maybe for defense purposes?
Granted, there is still hope. We will have legislative votes next year that could bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats retake the Senate or House of Congress. There exist government representatives who are striving to apply some accountability, for example lawmakers currently launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election in 2028 could begin the path to healing just as last year’s election put us on this unfortunate course.
There are millions of Americans marching in urban areas throughout communities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.
A former official, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he recognizes the signs of that revival and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition against a television host's removal and the largely united refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they report only authorized information.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays dormant till some venality grows too toxic, some action so offensive of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that he is compelled except to rise.”
It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will prove to be right.
Meanwhile, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its devotion to the rule of law?
Or must we acknowledge that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My cynical mind tells me that the final scenario is true; that everything could be finished. My hopeful heart, however, tells me that we have to attempt, through all methods possible.
Personally, as a media critic, that involves urging journalists to commit, more completely, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it may be working on political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to defend ballot privileges.
Not even one year prior, we existed in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The reality is, we cannot predict. The only option is to strive to continue fighting.
What Offers Me Optimism Currently
The interaction I have in the classroom with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always
