A Heartbreaking Change Only 12 Months Has Brought in the US
One year ago, the environment was entirely separate. Ahead of the American presidential vote, considerate citizens could admit the nation's serious imperfections – its injustices and imbalance – yet they continued to see it as the United States. A democracy. A country where the rule of law meant something. A nation guided by a respectable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the nation we live in. Persons alleged as illegal immigrants are rounded up and pushed into vans, sometimes denied due process. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being torn down for an obscene event space. Donald Trump is persecuting his political rivals or supposed enemies and requesting legal authorities surrender a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are deployed across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, renamed the Department of War, has effectively rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are submitting under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are regarded as members of the royal family.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the limit into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” an American historian, commented recently. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it occurred here.”
Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone we have become, and how quickly it occurred.
Nevertheless, we know that the president was properly voted in. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the warnings that came with the awareness of Project 2025 – following Trump himself stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters chose him over the other candidate.
While alarming as the current reality is, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just nine months into this presidential term. What will another 36 months of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that period becomes an prolonged era, since there is not anyone to limit this president from determining that additional tenure is essential, possibly for national security reasons?
Admittedly, all is not lost. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that may create a new balance of power, should Democrats retake either chamber of parliament. We have public servants who are attempting to impose some accountability, such as representatives who are launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election in 2028 could begin the path to recovery exactly as the previous vote placed us on this unfortunate course.
There exist millions of Americans protesting in the streets throughout communities, like they performed in the past days in the No Kings rallies.
Robert Reich, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is stirring”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or during the Nixon controversy.
On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.
He claims he knows the signals of that revival and observes it occurring now. For proof, he cites the widespread marches, the extensive, cross-party resistance against a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to accept the defense department’s demands they report only approved content.
“The dormant force always remains inactive until certain corruption grows too toxic, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, certain violence so disruptive, that it is forced other than to stir.”
It's a positive outlook, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.
In the meantime, the big questions endure: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its standing internationally and its adherence to legal principles?
Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is true; that everything might be lost. My positive feelings, however, tells me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways available.
For me, as a media critic, that means encouraging reporters to adhere, more thoroughly, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For some people, it could mean working on election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.
Under twelve months back, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or three years from now? The truth is, we don’t know. The only option is to attempt to persevere.
What Offers Me Hope Now
The interaction I experience during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are both visionary and practical, {always
