The Devastating Shift Only 12 Months Has Made in America
In late October 2024, the landscape was utterly distinct. Before the national election, reflective residents could acknowledge America's significant faults – its inequities and disparity – however they could still identify it as the United States. A democratic nation. A land where the rule of law carried weight. A country guided by a dignified and decent leader, notwithstanding his elderly years and increasing frailty.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the nation we reside in. Individuals believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and pushed into vehicles, at times denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is targeting his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities transfer a massive sum of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight while it uses what could amount to close to a trillion USD in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, journalism organizations are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like aristocracy.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, wrote this past summer. “Finally, swifter than I imagined possible, it transpired in this country.”
Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we are, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.
Nevertheless, we understand that the leader was duly elected. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the cautions associated with the understanding of Project 2025 – following Trump himself declared plainly he would rule as a tyrant solely at the start – enough Americans elected him over his Democratic opponent.
Frightening as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to realize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this decline leave us? And if that period becomes something even longer, as there is nobody to stop this ruler from deciding that another term is required, possibly for security concerns?
Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be midterm elections the coming year which might establish an alternate governmental control, should Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. There are government representatives who are attempting to exert some accountability, like Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election in the next cycle could initiate us down the road toward restoration precisely as last year’s election set us on this regrettable path.
We see countless citizens marching in the streets across municipalities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.
An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of America is awakening”, similar to past following the Red Scare during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or throughout the seventies crisis.
On those occasions, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.
Reich says he knows the indicators of that resurgence and notices it unfolding at present. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the broad, bipartisan pushback against a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign government requirements they only publish what is sanctioned.
“The slumbering entity always remains inactive before some venality grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will prove to be right.
In the meantime, the big questions remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its status in the world and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or must we acknowledge that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My cynical mind indicates that the second option is correct; that everything might be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways available.
In my case, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For some people, it may be engaging with political races, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.
Less than a year ago, we existed in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to strive to not give up.
What Offers Me Hope Now
The engagement I have during teaching with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and grounded, {always
