The Tragic Change Only 12 Months Has Brought in America
One year ago, the situation was entirely separate. Ahead of the US presidential election, reflective residents could admit the nation's deep flaws – its injustices and imbalance – however they could still perceive it as the US. A democracy. A land where constitutional order meant something. A state guided by a respectable and upright leader, even with his elderly years and declining health.
Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens barely recognize the land we inhabit. Persons believed to be illegal immigrants are collected and pushed into vans, at times blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and demanding the justice department transfer an enormous amount of public funds. Uniformed troops are being sent to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, rebranded the War Department, has effectively freed itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Colleges, law firms, news companies are buckling under the president’s threats, and billionaires are treated like aristocracy.
“The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “In the end, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen here.”
Each day begins amid recent atrocities. It is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost we are, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.
Nevertheless, we know that the president was legitimately chosen. Following his deeply disturbing first term and despite the alerts associated with the awareness of the conservative plan – following the leader directly declared plainly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens selected him rather than the other candidate.
While alarming as the current reality are, it's more frightening to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this decline position us? And if that period becomes something even longer, as there is not anyone to stop this president from deciding that a third term is required, possibly for defense purposes?
Admittedly, there is still hope. We will have congressional elections the coming year that could establish an alternate balance of power, in case Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. There exist public servants who are attempting to exert some accountability, for example Democratic congressmen that are starting a probe regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.
And a national vote three years from now could initiate the path toward restoration precisely as last year’s election set us on this unfortunate course.
There are millions of Americans protesting in the streets throughout communities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.
An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or during anti-war demonstrations or during the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he knows the signals of that revival and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he references the recent massive protests, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish authorized information.
“The slumbering entity always remains dormant before some venality turns extremely harmful, an specific act so contemptuous of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that the giant has no choice other than to stir.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will prove to be right.
At the same time, the crucial issues remain: can America ever recover? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its adherence to legal principles?
Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My negative thoughts indicates that the latter is true; that all may indeed be lost. My hopeful heart, however, convinces me that we must try, through all methods we can.
For me, working in journalism analysis, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more thoroughly, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it may be working on election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect electoral access.
Under twelve months back, we existed in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is try to continue fighting.
What’s Giving Me Hope Now
The interaction I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always
