🔗 Share this article

Twelve months back, the environment was completely distinct. Ahead of the American presidential vote, reflective citizens could admit the nation's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – however they still could perceive it as the United States. A free society. A country where constitutional order held significance. A country headed by a respectable and ethical leader, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens scarcely know the land we reside in. People believed to be illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into vans, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition for an obscene dance hall. The leader is persecuting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors transfer an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, renamed the Department of War, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of what could amount to close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Institutions, law firms, news companies are yielding from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as nobility.

“The US, shortly prior to its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the limit into autocracy and extremism,” a noted author, stated this past summer. “Finally, more quickly than I believed likely, it did happen in America.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

However, we know that the president was duly elected. Following his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the warnings associated with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – following the leader directly declared plainly he planned to be a dictator only on the first day – sufficient voters elected him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the present situation are, it's more frightening to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. What will an additional three years of this downfall find us? And if that period transforms into something even longer, as there is no one to restrain this president from determining that additional tenure is required, perhaps for defense purposes?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections next year which might bring a different balance of power, in case Democrats recapture either chamber of parliament. There exist government representatives who are trying to apply a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers that are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could begin the path to healing just as last year’s election placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

We see countless citizens marching in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed in the past days at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is stirring”, similar to past post-McCarthyism during the fifties or throughout the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he recognizes the indicators of that resurgence and sees it happening at present. As support, he points to the recent massive protests, the extensive, bipartisan pushback to a personality's dismissal and the largely united defiance by media to sign government requirements they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force consistently stays dormant till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so loud, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the big questions remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its position internationally and its adherence to constitutional order?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

Personally, as a media critic, that involves encouraging reporters to live up, more completely, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For others, it could mean working on congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to safeguard voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we lived in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The interaction I have in the classroom with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and practical, {always