A Tragic Change Just One Year Has Brought in the US
One year ago, the situation was utterly distinct. Ahead of the national election, reflective residents could recognize the nation's deep flaws – its inequities and disparity – yet they continued to identify it as the US. A democracy. A land where legal governance carried weight. A nation led by a honorable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.
Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens scarcely know the country we reside in. Individuals suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into vehicles, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is being torn down for an obscene event space. The leader is persecuting his opponents or supposed enemies and demanding legal authorities surrender a massive sum of public funds. Uniformed troops are deployed into American cities on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the War Department, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and extremism,” an American historian, stated this past summer. “In the end, more quickly than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”
One awakes to new horrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost we have become, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.
Yet, we understand that Trump was properly voted in. Even after his highly troubling previous administration and despite the alerts associated with the understanding of the conservative plan – following Trump himself said publicly he intended to rule as a tyrant solely at the start – sufficient voters elected him instead of Kamala Harris.
Frightening as the present situation are, it's more frightening to realize that we have only been several months into this presidential term. What will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And suppose that period turns into something even longer, because there is no one to limit this leader from determining that additional tenure is required, maybe for defense purposes?
Certainly, there is still hope. We will have legislative votes the coming year that may establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There are public servants who are trying to impose certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen that are initiating an inquiry concerning the try to cash appropriation from the justice department.
And a presidential election in 2028 could start us down the road to recovery just as the prior selection put us on this unfortunate course.
There exist numerous residents protesting in urban areas of their cities, as they did in the past days in the No Kings rallies.
A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or throughout the Vietnam war protests or in the seventies crisis.
In those instances, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.
He claims he understands the signs of that resurgence and sees it happening now. For proof, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, multi-faction opposition against a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover approved content.
“The dormant force perpetually exists inactive until some venality turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so offensive of societal benefit, certain violence so disruptive, that he is forced but to awaken.”
It's a positive outlook, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may prove to be right.
At the same time, the major inquiries remain: will the nation regain its footing? Can it retrieve its status globally and its adherence to legal principles?
Or should we recognize that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My cynical mind tells me that the latter is accurate; that everything could be finished. My positive feelings, though, tells me that we need to strive, in whatever ways possible.
In my case, as a media critic, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For some people, it may be participating in congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to protect voting rights.
Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or in several years? The fact is, we are uncertain. All we can do is to attempt to persevere.
What Provides Me Encouragement Today
The engagement I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously hopeful and grounded, {always
