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Twelve months back, the landscape was utterly different. Before the national election, considerate Americans could admit the nation's deep flaws – its unfairness and inequality – but they could still see it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where the rule of law held significance. A country guided by a honorable and upright leader, despite his older age and declining health.

Currently, in late October 2025, numerous citizens scarcely know the land we reside in. People alleged as undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into vans, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being torn down to build a lavish ballroom. Donald Trump is persecuting his opponents or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The military command, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Institutions, legal practices, journalism organizations are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Finally, faster than I believed likely, it did happen in this country.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. It is challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Nevertheless, we understand that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his profoundly alarming first term and despite the alerts linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly stated openly he intended to be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters selected him instead of the other candidate.

As terrifying as today's circumstances is, it’s even scarier to understand that we have only been three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will another 36 months of this decline find us? And suppose that timeframe transforms into a more extended duration, as there is not anyone to limit this leader from opting that a third term is required, possibly for defense purposes?

Granted, all is not lost. There will be midterm elections in 2026 which might create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist public servants who are striving to impose certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen currently launching an investigation into the attempted cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate us down the road toward restoration just as last year’s election set us on this regrettable path.

We see countless citizens protesting in public spaces throughout communities, as they did last weekend at democracy demonstrations.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the US is awakening”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he understands the signs of that awakening and observes it occurring at present. As support, he points to the recent massive protests, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to sign government requirements they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays dormant before certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that he is forced except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

At the same time, the crucial issues remain: can America ever recover? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its devotion to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind tells me that the latter is accurate; that all may indeed be finished. My positive feelings, however, advises me that we must try, through all methods possible.

Personally, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to commit, more thoroughly, to their purpose of holding power to account. For different individuals, it could mean engaging with congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to safeguard ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we existed in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to continue fighting.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The interaction I experience during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are equally visionary and practical, {always