A Heartbreaking Change Just One Year Has Made in America
Twelve months back, the environment was entirely different. Ahead of the American presidential vote, reflective residents could recognize the nation's serious imperfections – its unfairness and disparity – yet they could still identify it as America. A free society. A place where legal governance meant something. A state led by a respectable and decent public servant, despite his advanced age and growing weakness.
Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the country we inhabit. People believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and shoved into transport, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque dance hall. Donald Trump is persecuting his adversaries or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities hand over a massive sum of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “In the end, more quickly than I thought feasible, it occurred here.”
Every morning starts to new horrors. It is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – just how far gone our nation is, and how quickly it occurred.
Nevertheless, we know that the leader was legitimately chosen. Following his profoundly alarming first term and even after the cautions associated with the awareness of the conservative plan – even after Trump himself declared plainly he would be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans selected him over Kamala Harris.
Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration find us? And what if that timeframe turns into a more extended duration, because there is not anyone to stop this leader from determining that additional tenure is essential, possibly for defense purposes?
Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be midterm elections the coming year which might bring a different governmental control, if Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. We have government representatives who are trying to apply some accountability, for example lawmakers currently starting a probe regarding the effort to money grab from the justice department.
And a leadership election in the next cycle could start the path to healing exactly as the prior selection put us on this disappointing trajectory.
We see millions of Americans protesting in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed recently at democracy demonstrations.
A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is rising”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or amid the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.
Reich says he knows the signs of that revival and sees it happening now. For proof, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance against a personality's dismissal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they solely cover approved content.
“The slumbering entity always remains dormant till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that it is compelled except to rise.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may prove to be right.
At the same time, the big questions remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its status in the world and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My cynical mind suggests that the second option is true; that all may indeed be lost. My optimistic spirit, though, convinces me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways we can.
Personally, working in journalism analysis, that means urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve participating in congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to safeguard ballot privileges.
Under twelve months back, we lived in a separate situation. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we are uncertain. All we can do is to strive to not give up.
What’s Giving Me Hope Now
The interaction I experience during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are equally visionary and practical, {always
