A Tragic Change Just One Year Has Caused in America
Twelve months back, the environment was utterly separate. Ahead of the national election, considerate Americans could recognize the country's deep flaws – its inequities and imbalance – however they could still identify it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where legal governance carried weight. A nation headed by a honorable and upright leader, even with his older age and declining health.
Currently, in late October 2025, numerous citizens scarcely know the nation we inhabit. Persons believed to be illegal immigrants are collected and pushed into vehicles, sometimes refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. The leader is persecuting his political rivals or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities hand over a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are dispatched across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding under the president’s threats, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.
“The United States, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated in August. “Finally, swifter than I believed likely, it transpired in this country.”
Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and how quickly it occurred.
Yet, we know that the president was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing initial presidency and even after the warnings associated with the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly declared plainly he planned to be a dictator just on day one – enough Americans selected him rather than the other candidate.
While alarming as the present situation may be, it's more daunting to recognize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. How will three more years of this decline leave us? And suppose that timeframe becomes something even longer, because there is no one to stop this ruler from opting that another term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?
Admittedly, all is not lost. We will have congressional elections the coming year which might bring a different balance of power, in case Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. There are government representatives who are striving to exert certain responsibility, such as lawmakers who are starting a probe into the attempted cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election three years from now could start our journey to recovery exactly as the previous vote placed us on this disappointing trajectory.
There exist numerous residents marching in urban areas across municipalities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.
An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is rising”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or amid the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Watergate scandal.
In those instances, the listing ship finally returned to balance.
The author states he understands the indicators of that awakening and observes it occurring at present. As support, he points to the recent massive protests, the widespread, bipartisan pushback against a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to government requirements they report only approved content.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays dormant before specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful toward public welfare, specific cruelty so disruptive, that he is forced except to rise.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.
In the meantime, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status internationally and its commitment to legal principles?
Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My negative thoughts indicates that the second option is true; that all may indeed be finished. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we have to attempt, by any means possible.
Personally, working in journalism analysis, that means pushing media professionals to adhere, more completely, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For others, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to defend ballot privileges.
Less than a year ago, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The truth is, we don’t know. All we can do is to strive to not give up.
What Provides Me Hope Now
The interaction I have in the classroom with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and practical, {always
