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One year ago, the landscape was completely different. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful Americans could admit America's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – however they continued to identify it as America. A free society. A place where legal governance held significance. A nation headed by a dignified and upright public servant, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the land we reside in. Individuals believed to be unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into vans, at times refused legal rights. The East Wing of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene event space. The president is targeting his adversaries or alleged foes and demanding legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, renamed the Department of War, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Institutions, legal practices, news companies are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250^th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Ultimately, more quickly than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it is challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we have become, and how quickly it has happened.

Yet, it is known that Trump was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming first term and despite the cautions that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – following the leader directly stated openly he intended to be a dictator solely at the start – sufficient voters chose him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality are, it's more frightening to realize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration leave us? And what if that timeframe turns into an prolonged era, because there is nobody to limit this president from opting that another term is required, maybe for security concerns?

Certainly, there is still hope. There will be congressional elections the coming year that may create a new balance of power, should Democrats recapture either chamber of parliament. There exist public servants who are striving to impose some accountability, such as Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to money grab from legal authorities.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate the path to healing exactly as last year’s election set us on this unfortunate course.

There exist millions of Americans protesting in the streets of their cities, similar to recent recently in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is awakening”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

The author states he knows the indicators of that resurgence and sees it happening currently. As support, he cites the recent massive protests, the widespread, bipartisan pushback regarding a broadcaster's firing and the largely united rejection by reporters to agree to military mandates they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force perpetually exists inactive until certain corruption turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful toward public welfare, specific cruelty so noisy, that he has no choice except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll be validated.

Meanwhile, the big questions remain: will the nation regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its devotion to legal principles?

Or must we acknowledge that the historical project worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be finished. My positive feelings, however, convinces me that we need to strive, in whatever ways available.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that means pushing media professionals to commit, more completely, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it might involve engaging with political races, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we were in a very different place. A year from now? Or in several years? The fact is, we cannot predict. The only option is to attempt to persevere.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I experience during teaching with young journalists, who are both hopeful and practical, {always