🔗 Share this article

In late October 2024, the situation was utterly different. Ahead of the national election, reflective Americans could recognize the nation's significant faults – its injustices and imbalance – yet they could still perceive it as the US. A democracy. A place where the rule of law held significance. A country led by a dignified and decent public servant, notwithstanding his older age and growing weakness.

These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the land we live in. Persons believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into vehicles, at times blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is targeting his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding the justice department surrender a huge total of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are being sent across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.

“The United States, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the limit into autocracy and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it transpired in this country.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we are, and the speed at which it has happened.

Nevertheless, it is known that the president was properly voted in. Even after his deeply disturbing initial presidency and following the warnings associated with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him over Kamala Harris.

Frightening as the present situation are, it's more frightening to realize that we’re only several months into this presidential term. What will three more years of this deterioration position us? And suppose that period transforms into a more extended duration, because there is no one to restrain this ruler from opting that additional tenure is required, perhaps for security concerns?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be legislative votes the coming year which might establish an alternate governmental control, in case Democrats regain either chamber of the legislature. There exist public servants who are trying to impose a degree of oversight, like Democratic congressmen who are starting a probe regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a leadership election three years from now could begin the path to healing just as the prior selection put us on this unfortunate course.

There are numerous residents demonstrating in the streets of their cities, as they did in the past days at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or throughout the Vietnam war protests or during the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he knows the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As support, he references the widespread marches, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to accept government requirements they solely cover authorized information.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays inactive before some venality grows too toxic, a particular deed so offensive of the common good, some brutality so disruptive, that the giant is forced except to rise.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

Meanwhile, the major inquiries endure: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its commitment to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain suggests that the second option is correct; that everything might be gone. My positive feelings, though, advises me that we must try, through all methods we can.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that means pushing media professionals to live up, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For others, it might involve engaging with political races, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we existed in a separate situation. A year from now? Or in several years? The reality is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is to strive to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I have with students with new media professionals, that are simultaneously visionary and grounded, {always