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Twelve months back, the situation was utterly distinct. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could admit the nation's significant faults – its inequities and imbalance – however they could still perceive it as America. A democracy. A place where legal governance meant something. A state led by a respectable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the nation we inhabit. Persons suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are collected and pushed into transport, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the White House – is undergoing demolition for an obscene ballroom. The president is persecuting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The military command, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, media outlets are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are handled as members of the royal family.

“The US, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, faster than I thought feasible, it transpired in America.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we know that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his highly troubling previous administration and even after the alerts associated with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself stated openly he would be a dictator just on day one – enough Americans chose him rather than the other candidate.

While alarming as the current reality may be, it's more daunting to recognize that we have only been several months into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration find us? And if that period becomes an prolonged era, because there is not anyone to limit this leader from deciding that another term is necessary, perhaps for defense purposes?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be midterm elections the coming year that could create a new political equilibrium, in case Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. We have public servants who are attempting to exert certain responsibility, such as lawmakers who are launching an investigation regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could start the path toward restoration precisely as the previous vote put us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are countless citizens protesting in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed in the past days in the No Kings rallies.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, just as it did post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the listing ship eventually was righted.

Reich says he understands the indicators of that resurgence and observes it occurring now. As support, he cites the widespread marches, the extensive, bipartisan pushback against a television host's removal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to sign military mandates they report only what is sanctioned.

“The sleeping giant always remains inactive till specific greed turns extremely harmful, some action so contemptuous of the common good, certain violence so loud, that the giant is forced other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

At the same time, the major inquiries persist: will the nation return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status internationally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind indicates that the second option is true; that everything could be lost. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

In my case, as a media critic, that involves pushing media professionals to adhere, more completely, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it could mean working on congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we were in a separate situation. A year from now? Or in several years? The truth is, we cannot predict. The only option is try to persevere.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The contact I have in the classroom with young journalists, that are simultaneously visionary and realistic, {always