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One year ago, the environment was utterly separate. Before the American presidential vote, considerate Americans could recognize the country's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – yet they continued to see it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order meant something. A country led by a respectable and ethical leader, even with his elderly years and declining health.

Currently, in late October 2025, many of us scarcely know the land we reside in. Individuals alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and pushed into vehicles, at times denied due process. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being torn down to build a lavish ballroom. The leader is persecuting his opponents or perceived antagonists and insisting the justice department surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The Pentagon, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses potentially totaling nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, law firms, media outlets are buckling under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are regarded as nobility.

“The United States, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the brink toward dictatorship and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen here.”

One awakes to new horrors. It is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone we are, and the speed at which it unfolded.

However, we understand that the president was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming previous administration and following the cautions that came with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – even after the president personally stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him rather than the other candidate.

While alarming as today's circumstances are, it's more frightening to recognize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will an additional three years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that timeframe turns into something even longer, as there is nobody to limit this president from determining that another term is necessary, perhaps for defense purposes?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections the coming year which might establish an alternate governmental control, if Democrats recapture either chamber of Congress. There exist public servants who are attempting to apply some accountability, for example lawmakers currently launching an investigation into the attempted money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could begin the path toward restoration just as the prior selection set us on this regrettable path.

We see countless citizens protesting in public spaces throughout communities, similar to recent last weekend during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is stirring”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or throughout anti-war demonstrations or during the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.

He claims he knows the indicators of that resurgence and observes it occurring currently. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition against a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign government requirements they solely cover authorized information.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists dormant till some venality becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive toward public welfare, specific cruelty so loud, that it is forced but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the major inquiries remain: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind tells me that the final scenario is true; that all may indeed be lost. My positive feelings, however, convinces me that we must try, through all methods available.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that’s about pushing media professionals to commit, more thoroughly, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it could mean working on congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. Our sole course is try to persevere.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I encounter in the classroom with young journalists, who are equally idealistic and practical, {always