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Twelve months back, the environment was completely different. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful citizens could recognize the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and inequality – yet they could still perceive it as the US. A free society. A land where constitutional order meant something. A country guided by a respectable and decent official, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens scarcely know the country we reside in. People believed to be unauthorized foreigners are collected and pushed into vans, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. The president is targeting his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding the justice department transfer an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are deployed into American cities with deceptive justifications. The military command, relabeled the War Department, has effectively rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends what could amount to close to a trillion USD in public funds. Institutions, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are handled as aristocracy.

“The United States, just months before its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the brink toward dictatorship and extremism,” a noted author, stated this past summer. “Finally, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen in America.”

Each day begins to new horrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

Yet, we know that the president was duly elected. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the alerts that came with the knowledge of the conservative plan – following the leader directly stated openly he intended to be a dictator only on the first day – enough Americans chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the current reality is, it's more frightening to understand that we are just several months into this administration. How will another 36 months of this downfall leave us? And what if the three years turns into something even longer, because there is nobody to restrain this president from deciding that another term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that may establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There are elected officials who are attempting to impose a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers currently launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate us down the road to healing just as the prior selection placed us on this regrettable path.

There are countless citizens demonstrating in the streets of their cities, like they performed recently during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or during anti-war demonstrations or throughout the Nixon controversy.

In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he knows the signs of that resurgence and sees it happening now. As evidence, he cites the widespread marches, the widespread, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united defiance by media to sign the defense department’s demands they only publish authorized information.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists asleep before certain corruption becomes so noxious, some action so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that he is forced except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may prove to be right.

Meanwhile, the big questions remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its standing internationally and its commitment to constitutional order?

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 might be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, advises me that we need to strive, in whatever ways possible.

Personally, working in journalism analysis, that means pushing media professionals to adhere, more thoroughly, to their duty of holding power to account. For some people, it may be working on political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we lived in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we are uncertain. All we can do is to strive to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Hope Now

The contact I experience with students with young journalists, who are both idealistic and realistic, {always