The Heartbreaking Shift Just One Year Has Made in America

Twelve months back, the situation was utterly separate. Ahead of the US presidential election, considerate Americans could recognize the country's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – but they could still see it as America. A free society. A country where legal governance meant something. A state led by a respectable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his older age and growing weakness.

Currently, in late October 2025, many of us scarcely know the country we inhabit. Individuals suspected of being undocumented migrants are detained and shoved into vehicles, occasionally denied due process. The eastern section of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene dance hall. The leader is persecuting his adversaries or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The military command, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Universities, law firms, media outlets are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are handled as aristocracy.

“The US, shortly prior to its quarter-millennium anniversary as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and extremism,” a noted author, commented this past summer. “In the end, faster than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone our nation is, and how quickly it unfolded.

Yet, we know that Trump was legitimately chosen. Following his profoundly alarming previous administration and following the alerts that came with the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite the president personally declared plainly he intended to act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him over the other candidate.

Frightening as today's circumstances is, it's more daunting to understand that we have only been several months into this presidential term. What will an additional three years of this decline leave us? And what if that period transforms into a more extended duration, because there is no one to limit this ruler from opting that a third term is essential, maybe for defense purposes?

Granted, all is not lost. We will have midterm elections in 2026 that may bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. We have public servants who are attempting to impose a degree of oversight, for example representatives that are initiating an inquiry concerning the try to money grab from the justice department.

And a presidential election three years from now could initiate us down the road toward restoration precisely as the prior selection put us on this unfortunate course.

There are countless citizens marching in urban areas throughout communities, as they did last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the US is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or throughout the sixties activism or during the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he understands the signs of that awakening and sees it happening currently. For proof, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a television host's removal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they only publish approved content.

“The sleeping giant always remains inactive till certain corruption grows too toxic, an specific act so offensive of the common good, specific cruelty so noisy, that it has no choice but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may be validated.

Meanwhile, the major inquiries remain: can America regain its footing? Can it reclaim its standing internationally and its devotion to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts suggests that the latter is correct; that all may indeed be lost. My positive feelings, though, tells me that we have to attempt, by any means available.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that involves pushing media professionals to live up, more fully, to their mission of holding power to account. For some people, it might involve participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to persevere.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always