A Tragic Shift Just One Year Has Caused in America
Twelve months back, the situation was entirely distinct. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could acknowledge the nation's serious imperfections – its injustices and inequality – but they could still perceive it as the United States. A democracy. A country where legal governance carried weight. A nation headed by a respectable and decent public servant, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.
Currently, in late October 2025, numerous citizens scarcely know the land we live in. Persons believed to be unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and shoved into vehicles, occasionally denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is being destroyed for an obscene dance hall. The president is targeting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and insisting the justice department surrender a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has effectively liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are handled as aristocracy.
“America, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “In the end, swifter than I thought feasible, it occurred in America.”
One awakes with fresh terrors. It is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost our nation is, and the speed at which it has happened.
However, we understand that the president was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing initial presidency and even after the warnings that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – even after the leader directly said publicly he planned to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – enough Americans chose him instead of his Democratic opponent.
As terrifying as today's circumstances is, it's more frightening to realize that we are just nine months under this leadership. Where will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And if that timeframe becomes a more extended duration, as there is nobody to restrain this president from determining that additional tenure is necessary, possibly for security concerns?
Certainly, there is still hope. We will have congressional elections next year which might create a new balance of power, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of parliament. We have elected officials who are striving to impose a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers currently starting a probe concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a national vote in the next cycle could begin the path toward restoration precisely as last year’s election set us on this disappointing trajectory.
There are countless citizens demonstrating in public spaces across municipalities, as they did last weekend at democracy demonstrations.
A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of America is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism during the fifties or during the sixties activism or during the Nixon controversy.
On those occasions, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he knows the signals of that resurgence and notices it unfolding at present. As support, he references the recent massive protests, the broad, multi-faction opposition against a personality's dismissal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to government requirements they report only what is sanctioned.
“The sleeping giant perpetually exists dormant till some venality becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that the giant is forced other than to stir.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may turn out correct.
At the same time, the crucial issues remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it retrieve its standing in the world and its commitment to the rule of law?
Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the latter is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My positive feelings, though, advises me that we must try, through all methods we can.
In my case, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to commit, more completely, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it may be participating in political races, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to safeguard voting rights.
Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. A year from now? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is try to continue fighting.
What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently
The engagement I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, who are equally visionary and realistic, {always