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One year ago, the landscape was completely different. Ahead of the national election, considerate residents could acknowledge the nation's deep flaws – its unfairness and imbalance – yet they continued to identify it as the US. A free society. A country where the rule of law carried weight. A nation guided by a respectable and ethical official, despite his older age and declining health.

These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the land we reside in. Persons alleged as illegal immigrants are collected and shoved into transport, occasionally refused legal rights. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque event space. The president is targeting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and demanding federal prosecutors surrender a huge total of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has practically freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of what could amount to almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Colleges, attorney offices, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and billionaires are treated like nobility.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, stated recently. “Ultimately, faster than I believed likely, it did happen here.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – how severely declined our nation is, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, we know that the leader was properly voted in. Even after his highly troubling previous administration and following the alerts linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself declared plainly he planned to be a dictator just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him instead of his Democratic opponent.

While alarming as the present situation may be, it's more daunting to understand that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. How will an additional three years of this deterioration position us? And suppose that timeframe transforms into something even longer, since there is no one to restrain this ruler from opting that a third term is required, maybe for national security reasons?

Certainly, there is still hope. There are midterm elections next year that may create a new governmental control, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. There are government representatives who are striving to exert certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen who are starting a probe concerning the try to cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a presidential election three years from now could begin the path toward restoration exactly as the prior selection put us on this regrettable path.

There exist numerous residents protesting in public spaces throughout communities, as they did last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is stirring”, just as it did following the Red Scare in the 1950s or during the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.

During those times, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he recognizes the indicators of that revival and sees it happening at present. As support, he references the widespread marches, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they only publish approved content.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists inactive till some venality turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that he is forced other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll be validated.

At the same time, the big questions endure: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its status internationally and its commitment to constitutional order?

Or must we acknowledge that the historical project worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My negative thoughts indicates that the latter is true; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, though, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

In my case, as a media critic, that means urging journalists to commit, more fully, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it could mean participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or three years from now? The fact is, we are uncertain. The only option is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The contact I encounter with students with young journalists, who are equally idealistic and realistic, {always