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One year ago, the landscape was completely distinct. Prior to the national election, considerate Americans could recognize America's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – yet they still could identify it as America. A free society. A land where constitutional order carried weight. A state led by a honorable and upright public servant, even with his elderly years and increasing frailty.

These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the country we reside in. Persons believed to be undocumented migrants are detained and forced into transport, sometimes refused legal rights. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is being destroyed to build a lavish ballroom. The president is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and demanding legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the Department of War, has effectively liberated itself of routine media oversight while it uses potentially totaling nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are submitting under the president’s threats, and billionaires are treated like nobility.

“America, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” an American historian, wrote recently. “Finally, swifter than I believed likely, it transpired here.”

Each day begins to new horrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we have become, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

Nevertheless, we know that the leader was legitimately chosen. Even after his profoundly alarming first term and even after the warnings linked to the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – despite Trump himself stated openly he planned to be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans chose him over his Democratic opponent.

While alarming as the current reality may be, it's more daunting to realize that we’re only three-quarters of a year into this administration. Where will another 36 months of this deterioration find us? And what if the three years becomes something even longer, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from determining that additional tenure is essential, maybe for security concerns?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be legislative votes next year that may create a new balance of power, should Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist elected officials who are attempting to exert a degree of oversight, like representatives currently launching an investigation concerning the try to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate our journey to recovery just as last year’s election set us on this regrettable path.

There exist millions of Americans demonstrating in urban areas throughout communities, similar to recent recently during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, exactly as before following the Red Scare in the 1950s or throughout anti-war demonstrations or in the Nixon controversy.

In those instances, the listing ship eventually was righted.

He claims he understands the indicators of that awakening and notices it unfolding now. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to agree to military mandates they report only approved content.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, certain violence so loud, that he is forced other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the big questions remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its position in the world and its devotion to constitutional order?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain suggests that the latter is correct; that everything might be gone. My hopeful heart, however, advises me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to safeguard voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we existed in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The reality is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The contact I encounter in the classroom with aspiring reporters, who are both idealistic and grounded, {always