A Tragic Shift Just One Year Has Caused in the US

Twelve months back, the situation was entirely separate. Ahead of the national election, considerate citizens could recognize the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and disparity – however they continued to see it as America. A democracy. A land where the rule of law held significance. A state guided by a respectable and decent official, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.

These days, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the land we inhabit. People alleged as illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into vehicles, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish dance hall. The leader is harassing his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding the justice department transfer a huge total of public funds. Armed military personnel are dispatched into American cities on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has effectively liberated itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as members of the royal family.

“The US, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the edge toward dictatorship and extremism,” Garrett Graff, commented this past summer. “Ultimately, faster than I imagined possible, it transpired in America.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone our nation is, and how quickly it occurred.

Nevertheless, it is known that the leader was properly voted in. Even after his highly troubling first term and even after the cautions linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself said publicly he planned to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – a majority of citizens selected him instead of Kamala Harris.

Frightening as the current reality are, it's more daunting to understand that we’re only several months into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this downfall find us? And what if that timeframe transforms into a more extended duration, because there is no one to restrain this president from determining that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections next year that could create a new balance of power, should Democrats retake either chamber of parliament. There are government representatives who are trying to apply certain responsibility, like Democratic congressmen currently starting a probe into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.

And a national vote in the next cycle could initiate the path toward restoration just as last year’s election set us on this unfortunate course.

We see millions of Americans protesting in urban areas of their cities, like they performed recently at democracy demonstrations.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the dormant powerhouse of America is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or during anti-war demonstrations or during the Nixon controversy.

During those times, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

The author states he knows the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding currently. As evidence, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, cross-party resistance against a personality's dismissal and the largely united refusal by journalists to accept military mandates they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays dormant before specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, certain violence so disruptive, that it is compelled except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the big questions endure: can America regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, through all methods available.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their duty of holding power to account. For some people, it may be participating in congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to safeguard electoral access.

Under twelve months back, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is to strive to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The contact I encounter with students with new media professionals, who are equally visionary and realistic, {always