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Twelve months back, the situation was entirely distinct. Before the national election, considerate Americans could acknowledge America's deep flaws – its injustices and inequality – but they still could see it as the United States. A democratic nation. A land where legal governance held significance. A nation guided by a dignified and upright public servant, notwithstanding his elderly years and increasing frailty.

These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the land we inhabit. People believed to be undocumented migrants are detained and shoved into vehicles, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the White House – is being destroyed to build a lavish dance hall. The president is harassing his opponents or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities transfer a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are dispatched across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, renamed the War Department, has effectively liberated itself of regular press examination as it spends what could amount to almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, law firms, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as aristocracy.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the edge into authoritarianism and fascism,” a noted author, wrote recently. “Finally, swifter than I imagined possible, it transpired in this country.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. It is challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, it is known that Trump was duly elected. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and even after the warnings that came with the awareness of the conservative plan – even after Trump himself stated openly he would be a dictator only on the first day – sufficient voters chose him over the other candidate.

As terrifying as the present situation are, it's more daunting to realize that we’re only several months into this administration. What will an additional three years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that timeframe becomes something even longer, as there is nobody to restrain this president from opting that a third term is required, possibly for defense purposes?

Granted, all is not lost. There are midterm elections the coming year that could establish an alternate balance of power, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of parliament. There exist elected officials who are attempting to apply certain responsibility, like Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate us down the road toward restoration exactly as last year’s election put us on this regrettable path.

There exist millions of Americans demonstrating in the streets across municipalities, like they performed last weekend during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the slumbering force 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.

On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.

Reich says he recognizes the signals of that revival and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, cross-party resistance against a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to agree to military mandates they report only approved content.

“The slumbering entity always remains asleep till certain corruption turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that he has no choice except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

At the same time, the big questions remain: will the nation ever recover? Can it reclaim its standing internationally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My cynical mind suggests that the latter is true; that all may indeed be finished. My positive feelings, however, tells me that we must try, through all methods we can.

For me, as a media critic, that’s about pushing media professionals to adhere, more thoroughly, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For others, it may be engaging with political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we existed in an alternate reality. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The contact I experience with students with new media professionals, that are simultaneously visionary and realistic, {always