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Twelve months back, the landscape was completely distinct. Prior to the national election, considerate Americans could admit the nation's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – but they could still see it as the US. A democracy. A place where constitutional order meant something. A state guided by a honorable and decent leader, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the country we inhabit. People believed to be unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and forced into vans, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched to US urban areas under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, rebranded the War Department, has practically liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Institutions, law firms, journalism organizations are submitting from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“The United States, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the limit toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, more quickly than I imagined possible, it occurred here.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we are, and how quickly it unfolded.

Yet, we understand that the leader was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming previous administration and despite the alerts that came with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – despite the president personally declared plainly he intended to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – a majority of citizens elected him over Kamala Harris.

While alarming as today's circumstances is, it’s even scarier to understand that we are just several months under this leadership. What will an additional three years of this deterioration find us? And what if the three years turns into something even longer, as there is no one to limit this leader from deciding that a third term is essential, possibly for national security reasons?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There are legislative votes the coming year that could establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats retake one or both houses of the legislature. There are government representatives who are trying to exert certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen that are launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate our journey toward restoration just as last year’s election set us on this regrettable path.

We see millions of Americans protesting in urban areas across municipalities, similar to recent in the past days during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is awakening”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the sixties activism or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the signals of that awakening and sees it happening currently. As evidence, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, cross-party resistance regarding a television host's removal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish approved content.

“The dormant force consistently stays inactive till specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so disrespectful toward public welfare, specific cruelty so disruptive, that the giant has no choice other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.

At the same time, the major inquiries endure: can America regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its position globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the final scenario is correct; that everything might be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

For me, as an observer of the press, that involves encouraging reporters to adhere, more thoroughly, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it may be engaging with political races, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to safeguard voting rights.

Not even one year prior, we lived in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to persevere.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The contact I have during teaching with young journalists, who are both hopeful and practical, {always