The Heartbreaking Shift a Single Year Has Made in America
One year ago, the situation was entirely distinct. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful citizens could admit the country's significant faults – its inequities and disparity – yet they could still identify it as America. A democratic nation. A land where legal governance meant something. A nation headed by a honorable and ethical public servant, despite his elderly years and growing weakness.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the country we inhabit. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are detained and forced into vans, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish ballroom. The president is persecuting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and demanding federal prosecutors hand over a huge total of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are deployed across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Universities, legal practices, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like nobility.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” a noted author, commented this past summer. “Finally, swifter than I believed likely, it did happen here.”
One awakes to new horrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – just how far gone 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 following the warnings that came with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself stated openly he planned to act as an autocrat solely at the start – enough Americans chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.
Frightening as the present situation may be, it's more daunting to understand that we are just nine months under this leadership. What will three more years of this downfall position us? And what if that timeframe turns into an prolonged era, since there is no one to limit this president from deciding that additional tenure is required, possibly for national security reasons?
Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections the coming year which might bring a different political equilibrium, in case Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. There exist elected officials who are attempting to exert certain responsibility, like lawmakers who are launching an investigation concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election in 2028 could start us down the road to healing just as the previous vote placed us on this unfortunate course.
We see millions of Americans protesting in urban areas of their cities, similar to recent last weekend in the No Kings rallies.
Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of America is awakening”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or in the Nixon controversy.
In those instances, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.
He claims he understands the signs of that revival and observes it occurring currently. As support, he references the widespread marches, the extensive, multi-faction opposition to a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign government requirements they report only approved content.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive before certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous toward public welfare, specific cruelty so noisy, that he has no choice except to rise.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.
Meanwhile, the crucial issues persist: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its position globally and its commitment to legal principles?
Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My negative thoughts tells me that the latter is accurate; that all may indeed be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we need to strive, through all methods we can.
In my case, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.
Less than a year ago, we existed in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is to attempt to not give up.
What Provides Me Hope Now
The engagement I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and practical, {always
