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Twelve months back, the landscape was completely distinct. Before the US presidential election, considerate citizens could recognize America's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – yet they continued to identify it as the US. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order meant something. A state headed by a dignified and upright leader, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.

Nowadays, in late October 2025, countless Americans scarcely know the country we live in. Individuals alleged as illegal immigrants are collected and pushed into vans, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the White House – is being torn down for a grotesque dance hall. The leader is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are being sent across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Institutions, attorney offices, news companies are yielding under the president’s threats, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, just months before its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the brink toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Finally, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen in America.”

Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how severely declined our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

Nevertheless, we know that Trump was properly voted in. Following his highly troubling previous administration and even after the warnings that came with the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite Trump himself stated openly he intended to act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens elected him over the other candidate.

Frightening as today's circumstances are, it's more frightening to realize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this deterioration position us? And suppose that period turns into a more extended duration, as there is not anyone to restrain this ruler from opting that another term is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?

Granted, all is not lost. We will have congressional elections the coming year that could create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. We have elected officials who are attempting to apply a degree of oversight, such as representatives currently launching an investigation regarding the effort to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could start the path to healing exactly as the previous vote placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist numerous residents marching in urban areas throughout communities, like they performed in the past days during anti-authority protests.

A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.

In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he recognizes the signs of that revival and observes it occurring now. As evidence, he cites the recent massive protests, the widespread, bipartisan pushback against a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover authorized information.

“The dormant force consistently stays inactive till certain corruption becomes so noxious, some action so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so disruptive, that the giant has no choice but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

In the meantime, the crucial issues endure: can America return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My negative thoughts tells me that the latter is accurate; that everything might be lost. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways we can.

For me, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to adhere, more completely, to their purpose of holding power to account. For different individuals, it may be working on election efforts, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we are uncertain. All we can do is try to persevere.

What Offers Me Hope Now

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