A Heartbreaking Transformation Just One Year Has Brought in the United States

In late October 2024, the situation was entirely different. Prior to the US presidential election, reflective Americans could acknowledge America's significant faults – its injustices and disparity – however they continued to identify it as America. A free society. A place where legal governance held significance. A state guided by a honorable and upright public servant, despite his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, many of us barely recognize the country we reside in. Individuals alleged as unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and forced into vehicles, at times denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is being destroyed for an obscene dance hall. Donald Trump is persecuting his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding federal prosecutors hand over a massive sum of public funds. Armed military personnel are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has practically liberated itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of possibly reaching close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“America, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the limit into authoritarianism and extremism,” an American historian, commented in August. “In the end, swifter than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

Each day begins to new horrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we are, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Yet, it is known that the leader was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing first term and following the alerts linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself declared plainly he planned to act as an autocrat solely at the start – sufficient voters elected him instead of his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to realize that we have only been several months into this presidential term. How will three more years of this downfall leave us? And what if that timeframe transforms into a more extended duration, since there is no one to restrain this president from deciding that another term is essential, maybe for defense purposes?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. We will have legislative votes the coming year that may create a new governmental control, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of parliament. There exist government representatives who are trying to apply some accountability, like lawmakers that are initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate our journey toward restoration precisely as the prior selection placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

We see numerous residents marching in public spaces throughout communities, as they did last weekend at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is stirring”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he recognizes the signs of that awakening and notices it unfolding currently. As support, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to sign government requirements they only publish authorized information.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays asleep before certain corruption grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will be validated.

At the same time, the big questions remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its standing in the world and its adherence to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain indicates that the second option is true; that all may indeed be lost. My positive feelings, nevertheless, tells me that we need to strive, in whatever ways we can.

Personally, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to live up, more completely, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it may be participating in congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to safeguard ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we lived in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we cannot predict. The only option is try to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I encounter in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always