A Devastating Transformation a Single Year Has Made in the US
In late October 2024, the situation was completely separate. Prior to the US presidential election, reflective residents could admit America's significant faults – its inequities and imbalance – yet they could still perceive it as America. A democracy. A place where legal governance carried weight. A nation guided by a dignified and ethical official, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens barely recognize the land we inhabit. Persons alleged as undocumented migrants are collected and shoved into vehicles, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition for an obscene dance hall. The president is persecuting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and insisting the justice department hand over a huge total of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are being sent to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, relabeled the War Department, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses potentially totaling close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Institutions, legal practices, journalism organizations are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as aristocracy.
“The US, shortly prior to its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the brink into authoritarianism and fascism,” an American historian, wrote in August. “In the end, more quickly than I imagined possible, it occurred here.”
Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost our nation is, and how quickly it has happened.
However, it is known that Trump was duly elected. Following his profoundly alarming first term and despite the warnings associated with the understanding of Project 2025 – even after the president personally said publicly he would be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters selected him rather than his Democratic opponent.
Frightening as the present situation may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we’re only several months into this administration. What will three more years of this deterioration find us? And suppose the three years transforms into an prolonged era, since there is nobody to restrain this ruler from determining that additional tenure is necessary, perhaps for defense purposes?
Granted, there is still hope. There are legislative votes the coming year that may create a new political equilibrium, in case Democrats retake either chamber of Congress. There are elected officials who are trying to impose some accountability, such as Democratic congressmen currently launching an investigation into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.
And a national vote three years from now could begin our journey toward restoration exactly as the prior selection set us on this unfortunate course.
There exist numerous residents protesting in the streets throughout communities, as they did in the past days at democracy demonstrations.
A former official, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the sixties activism or throughout the seventies crisis.
In those instances, the unstable nation eventually was righted.
The author states he understands the signals of that resurgence and sees it happening currently. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal rejection by reporters to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover authorized information.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays dormant till specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful toward public welfare, certain violence so loud, that the giant has no choice but to awaken.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.
Meanwhile, the crucial issues endure: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its standing in the world and its commitment to constitutional order?
Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My pessimistic brain indicates that the final scenario is accurate; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, however, convinces me that we need to strive, in whatever ways we can.
Personally, working in journalism analysis, that’s about urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For others, it may be participating in election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to strive to continue fighting.
What Provides Me Optimism Currently
The contact I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always
