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In late October 2024, the landscape was completely different. Before the American presidential vote, reflective citizens could recognize the nation's significant faults – its injustices and disparity – but they still could see it as the US. A democratic nation. A place where legal governance carried weight. A nation headed by a dignified and ethical public servant, despite his older age and growing weakness.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us barely recognize the country we inhabit. People believed to be undocumented migrants are detained and shoved into transport, occasionally refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed to build a lavish dance hall. The president is persecuting his political rivals or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are dispatched to US urban areas under fabricated reasons. The military command, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has practically liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to close to a trillion USD in public funds. Colleges, law firms, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.

“The US, shortly prior to its quarter-millennium anniversary as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the brink toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote recently. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it transpired in America.”

Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we know that the leader was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming first term and despite the warnings that came with the knowledge of the conservative plan – despite Trump himself said publicly he intended to act as an autocrat only on the first day – enough Americans selected him instead of his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will another 36 months of this downfall leave us? And what if the three years transforms into a more extended duration, because there is not anyone to stop this ruler from opting that a third term is essential, possibly for security concerns?

Admittedly, there is still hope. We will have legislative votes the coming year which might create a new governmental control, should Democrats regain either chamber of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are striving to impose certain responsibility, like representatives who are initiating an inquiry concerning the try to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate the path to healing exactly as last year’s election set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are numerous residents marching in the streets of their cities, similar to recent recently during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the slumbering force of America is rising”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or throughout the sixties activism or throughout the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

He claims he recognizes the indicators of that resurgence and sees it happening now. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the extensive, bipartisan pushback against a broadcaster's firing and the largely united defiance by media to agree to government requirements they solely cover authorized information.

“The slumbering entity always remains asleep till specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so loud, that it has no choice other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the major inquiries persist: can America return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its standing in the world and its devotion to constitutional order?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is accurate; that all may indeed be finished. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that involves encouraging reporters to live up, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For others, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to safeguard voting rights.

Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is try to not give up.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I have in the classroom with aspiring reporters, who are equally visionary and practical, {always