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Twelve months back, the landscape was utterly different. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge the nation's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – but they still could perceive it as the US. A democratic nation. A land where the rule of law carried weight. A state led by a honorable and ethical leader, even with his older age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens barely recognize the nation we live in. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are collected and shoved into vans, occasionally denied due process. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is persecuting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities surrender a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are being sent across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The military command, renamed the Department of War, has practically liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling nearly $1tn in public funds. Colleges, attorney offices, news companies are yielding from leader's menaces, and rich magnates are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated in August. “In the end, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen here.”

Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – just how far gone we are, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we understand that the leader was legitimately chosen. Despite his highly troubling first term and following the cautions that came with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself stated openly he intended to be a dictator only on the first day – a majority of citizens selected him instead of the other candidate.

Frightening as the present situation is, it's more frightening to recognize that we have only been nine months into this administration. What will an additional three years of this decline find us? And what if that timeframe transforms into an prolonged era, because there is no one to limit this ruler from determining that another term is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?

Granted, all is not lost. There are legislative votes in 2026 that may bring a different balance of power, if Democrats recapture either chamber of Congress. There are government representatives who are striving to impose a degree of oversight, like Democratic congressmen currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate the path to recovery just as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.

There exist numerous residents demonstrating in the streets throughout communities, as they did last weekend during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or during anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.

He claims he knows the indicators of that revival and sees it happening at present. As support, he points to the widespread marches, the extensive, multi-faction opposition to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force perpetually exists asleep until some venality turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so loud, that the giant is compelled except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the crucial issues persist: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its status internationally and its devotion to constitutional order?

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

My pessimistic brain suggests that the second option is true; that all may indeed be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we have to attempt, through all methods available.

For me, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to adhere, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For some people, it might involve engaging with congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to protect voting rights.

Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we are uncertain. All we can do is try to not give up.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I have in the classroom with aspiring reporters, who are equally hopeful and realistic, {always