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One year ago, the environment was utterly distinct. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful citizens could recognize the country's deep flaws – its inequities and disparity – however they continued to identify it as America. A free society. A country where constitutional order held significance. A nation headed by a honorable and decent public servant, even with his advanced age and growing weakness.

These days, in late October 2025, countless Americans barely recognize the country we reside in. People alleged as illegal immigrants are collected and shoved into transport, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. The president is targeting his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are being sent across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, rebranded the War Department, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses potentially totaling close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.

“The US, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Ultimately, swifter than I believed likely, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost our nation is, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, we know that the leader was properly voted in. Following his profoundly alarming previous administration and despite the cautions linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself declared plainly he would act as an autocrat only on the first day – sufficient voters selected him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality may be, it's more frightening to understand that we have only been several months under this leadership. Where will three more years of this decline leave us? And what if that period becomes something even longer, as there is no one to restrain this ruler from deciding that a third term is necessary, maybe for defense purposes?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There are midterm elections in 2026 that could bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress. There are public servants who are attempting to impose some accountability, for example representatives that are initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate the path toward restoration exactly as the previous vote placed us on this unfortunate course.

There are numerous residents demonstrating in urban areas of their cities, as they did last weekend during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is stirring”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or throughout the sixties activism or in the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that awakening and notices it unfolding at present. As evidence, he references the recent massive protests, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover authorized information.

“The dormant force perpetually exists dormant until specific greed turns extremely harmful, some action so contemptuous of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that the giant is forced except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

Meanwhile, the crucial issues remain: can America regain its footing? Can it reclaim its status globally and its devotion to constitutional order?

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

My cynical mind suggests that the final scenario is true; that all may indeed be finished. My positive feelings, nevertheless, advises me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways available.

For me, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to adhere, more thoroughly, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For others, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we were in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I experience in the classroom with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and practical, {always