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One year ago, the situation was utterly separate. Before the national election, considerate citizens could admit the country's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – but they could still perceive it as the United States. A democratic nation. A country where legal governance carried weight. A country guided by a dignified and ethical leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the land we live in. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and forced into transport, at times denied due process. The left side of the presidential residence – is being torn down to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is harassing his opponents or alleged foes and insisting the justice department hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are deployed across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, renamed the War Department, has practically freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Universities, legal practices, journalism organizations are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are handled as aristocracy.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into autocracy and fascism,” an American historian, commented this past summer. “Ultimately, swifter than I believed likely, it did happen in this country.”

Each day begins to new horrors. And it's hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – just how far gone we have become, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

However, we know that Trump was legitimately chosen. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the alerts associated with the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite Trump himself declared plainly he would be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters elected him rather than the other candidate.

Frightening as the current reality are, it’s even scarier to recognize that we’re only nine months into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And suppose that period becomes a more extended duration, because there is no one to limit this ruler from deciding that another term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections the coming year that could create a new governmental control, if Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. There are public servants who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers currently starting a probe concerning the try to money grab from the justice department.

And a leadership election in 2028 could start our journey toward restoration just as last year’s election put us on this regrettable path.

We see countless citizens demonstrating in urban areas of their cities, similar to recent in the past days at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid the sixties activism or during the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

The author states he recognizes the indicators of that awakening and observes it occurring at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous defiance by media to agree to military mandates they solely cover authorized information.

“The dormant force always remains asleep till some venality grows too toxic, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that it is forced other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the big questions endure: will the nation ever recover? Is it possible to restore its position globally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is true; that everything might be gone. My positive feelings, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

Personally, as a media critic, that involves urging journalists to adhere, more thoroughly, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it might involve engaging with political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. The only option is to attempt to persevere.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The contact I have during teaching with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously hopeful and practical, {always