The Devastating Shift a Single Year Has Caused in the US

Twelve months back, the situation was utterly separate. Prior to the US presidential election, considerate Americans could admit the nation's deep flaws – its injustices and inequality – however they could still identify it as America. A free society. A land where legal governance carried weight. A nation guided by a dignified and decent leader, even with his advanced age and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens hardly identify the nation we inhabit. Individuals alleged as undocumented migrants are collected and forced into vans, occasionally refused legal rights. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition for an obscene event space. Donald Trump is targeting his opponents or alleged foes and demanding the justice department hand over a massive sum of public funds. Uniformed troops are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The military command, rebranded the War Department, has effectively freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends what could amount to nearly $1tn of taxpayer money. Universities, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are handled as aristocracy.

“America, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the limit into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen in America.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we are, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Nevertheless, we know that Trump was duly elected. Even after his highly troubling first term and even after the cautions linked to the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the president personally stated openly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – enough Americans elected him instead of Kamala Harris.

While alarming as the present situation are, it's more daunting to understand that we’re only several months into this presidential term. What will three more years of this downfall find us? And what if the three years transforms into a more extended duration, as there is nobody to stop this leader from deciding that another term is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that could create a new balance of power, should Democrats regain either chamber of parliament. There exist public servants who are attempting to apply a degree of oversight, like Democratic congressmen currently starting a probe into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate the path toward restoration just as the previous vote put us on this regrettable path.

We see millions of Americans marching in urban areas of their cities, like they performed recently in the No Kings rallies.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, similar to past following the Red Scare in that decade or during the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he understands the indicators of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As support, he references the widespread marches, the broad, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to accept the defense department’s demands they report only authorized information.

“The dormant force always remains inactive until specific greed turns extremely harmful, some action so disrespectful of the common good, certain violence so loud, that the giant is compelled except to rise.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

At the same time, the big questions persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its status internationally and its devotion to legal principles?

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

My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything might be lost. My positive feelings, however, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

For me, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to commit, more completely, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For others, it might involve participating in congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. The only option is try to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The interaction I experience with students with young journalists, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always