A Devastating Shift Just One Year Has Caused in America

One year ago, the environment was utterly different. Ahead of the American presidential vote, considerate citizens could recognize the nation's serious imperfections – its inequities and inequality – however they continued to identify it as the US. A democratic nation. A country where the rule of law meant something. A nation headed by a respectable and decent official, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Currently, in late October 2025, countless Americans hardly identify the country we live in. Individuals believed to be illegal immigrants are rounded up and forced into vehicles, at times refused legal rights. The East Wing of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene dance hall. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities hand over a massive sum of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight as it spends possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Universities, legal practices, media outlets are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“America, only a few months ahead of its 250^th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the edge into authoritarianism and extremism,” an American historian, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, swifter than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. It is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – just how far gone our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we know that Trump was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing initial presidency and despite the warnings associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly declared plainly he intended to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to understand that we are just nine months into this presidential term. What will an additional three years of this downfall leave us? And suppose that period becomes something even longer, as there is not anyone to stop this leader from opting that another term is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections in 2026 which might bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress. There are government representatives who are striving to impose certain responsibility, for example Democratic congressmen currently launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a leadership election in the next cycle could initiate us down the road to healing precisely as the previous vote placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist numerous residents protesting in public spaces across municipalities, similar to recent in the past days during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is rising”, just as it did following the Red Scare during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or in the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he knows the signals of that resurgence and observes it occurring currently. As evidence, he references the widespread marches, the extensive, bipartisan pushback regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to military mandates they only publish authorized information.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists dormant until specific greed grows too toxic, some action so offensive of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that it has no choice other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it retrieve its status internationally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be finished. My positive feelings, though, advises me that we must try, by any means possible.

For me, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to commit, more thoroughly, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it could mean participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or after another term? The truth is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is try to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The interaction I encounter in the classroom with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously hopeful and grounded, {always