🔗 Share this article

Twelve months back, the environment was completely distinct. Ahead of the national election, considerate citizens could acknowledge the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and imbalance – but they could still identify it as the US. A free society. A land where constitutional order held significance. A state headed by a honorable and upright official, despite his advanced age and growing weakness.

These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the land we inhabit. Persons believed to be illegal immigrants are rounded up and shoved into vehicles, occasionally denied due process. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for an obscene event space. Donald Trump is harassing his opponents or supposed enemies and demanding the justice department transfer a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The military command, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has effectively liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses potentially totaling close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Universities, legal practices, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.

“The United States, shortly prior to its 250^th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge toward dictatorship and fascism,” an American historian, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, swifter than I believed likely, it did happen here.”

One awakes to new horrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and how quickly it unfolded.

However, we know that the president was duly elected. Despite his highly troubling initial presidency and following the warnings that came with the awareness of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself declared plainly he planned to be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans chose him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as today's circumstances is, it’s even scarier to realize that we’re only nine months into this presidential term. What will three more years of this downfall position us? And what if the three years turns into an prolonged era, since there is not anyone to stop this president from determining that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for security concerns?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be congressional elections next year which might bring a different governmental control, if Democrats recapture one or both houses of Congress. There exist public servants who are attempting to apply a degree of oversight, such as Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry into the attempted fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote three years from now could begin us down the road to recovery just as last year’s election put us on this unfortunate course.

There exist numerous residents protesting in public spaces of their cities, like they performed last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in that decade or throughout the Vietnam war protests or during the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he understands the indicators of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As evidence, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a television host's removal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to sign government requirements they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists asleep until specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so disruptive, that it is compelled other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may prove to be right.

At the same time, the major inquiries remain: can America return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its position in the world and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My negative thoughts tells me that the final scenario is true; that all may indeed be lost. My optimistic spirit, however, tells me that we need to strive, through all methods we can.

Personally, working in journalism analysis, that’s about urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it might involve engaging with congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we existed in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The reality is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to strive to persevere.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I experience during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and practical, {always