The Heartbreaking Transformation Only 12 Months Has Made in America
Twelve months back, the landscape was entirely different. Before the US presidential election, considerate Americans could recognize the nation's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – yet they continued to see it as America. A free society. A land where constitutional order held significance. A state headed by a honorable and ethical leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the country we inhabit. Individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into transport, sometimes denied due process. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is harassing his opponents or supposed enemies and demanding legal authorities transfer a huge total of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, relabeled the War Department, has effectively liberated itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Universities, legal practices, news companies are buckling under the president’s threats, and billionaires are handled as aristocracy.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the limit into autocracy and fascism,” an American historian, stated recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I believed likely, it transpired in this country.”
One awakes amid recent atrocities. It is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined our nation is, and the speed at which it has happened.
However, we know that Trump was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing first term and following the alerts linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself stated openly he intended to be a dictator just on day one – enough Americans selected him rather than his Democratic opponent.
Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. What will an additional three years of this deterioration find us? And suppose that timeframe turns into something even longer, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, maybe for defense purposes?
Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections the coming year which might establish an alternate governmental control, should Democrats regain one or both houses of Congress. There are elected officials who are attempting to impose certain responsibility, such as lawmakers who are launching an investigation into the attempted cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election in the next cycle could initiate the path toward restoration just as the prior selection placed us on this unfortunate course.
There exist numerous residents marching in public spaces throughout communities, similar to recent last weekend during anti-authority protests.
Robert Reich, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, similar to past following the Red Scare in the 1950s or during the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the listing ship finally returned to balance.
He claims he knows the signals of that awakening and sees it happening at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, cross-party resistance regarding a television host's removal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish approved content.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays dormant until specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so offensive of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that it is forced except to rise.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.
In the meantime, the major inquiries endure: is the US able to return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its standing globally and its commitment to the rule of law?
Or should we recognize that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My pessimistic brain indicates that the latter is correct; that everything might be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, tells me that we need to strive, in whatever ways we can.
Personally, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their mission of holding power to account. For others, it could mean participating in election efforts, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to protect voting rights.
Less than a year ago, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to strive to not give up.
What Offers Me Encouragement Today
The contact I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always
