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One year ago, the situation was completely distinct. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could admit America's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – but they could still see it as the United States. A democracy. A place where legal governance carried weight. A state led by a honorable and ethical leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the country we inhabit. People believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into vehicles, occasionally refused legal rights. The East Wing of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene dance hall. The leader is targeting his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the War Department, has practically liberated itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of what could amount to almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are handled as nobility.

“America, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, wrote in August. “In the end, faster than I thought feasible, it occurred in America.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and how quickly it unfolded.

Yet, we know that Trump was properly voted in. Following his profoundly alarming previous administration and following the warnings associated with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – despite the president personally stated openly he planned to act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him rather than Kamala Harris.

While alarming as the current reality are, it's more frightening to understand that we’re only nine months into this administration. Where will another 36 months of this decline position us? And suppose that period turns into a more extended duration, as there is no one to restrain this president from opting that a third term is required, maybe for defense purposes?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections the coming year which might create a new governmental control, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen that are launching an investigation concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote in the next cycle could initiate our journey to healing just as the previous vote set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist millions of Americans protesting in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed last weekend during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of America is stirring”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the listing ship finally returned to balance.

The author states he recognizes the indicators of that revival and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, bipartisan pushback against a broadcaster's firing and the largely united rejection by reporters to sign military mandates they report only authorized information.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists asleep till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so offensive of the common good, certain violence so disruptive, that it has no choice other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the crucial issues persist: can America return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is true; that all may indeed be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, advises me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to live up, more completely, to their purpose of holding power to account. For some people, it might involve engaging with political races, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we existed in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The fact is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I experience during teaching with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always