A Tragic Shift Just One Year Has Made in the United States
One year ago, the situation was utterly different. Prior to the American presidential vote, reflective residents could acknowledge the nation's deep flaws – its unfairness and inequality – yet they continued to see it as America. A democracy. A country where the rule of law carried weight. A country guided by a dignified and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.
Currently, in late October 2025, countless Americans hardly identify the land we reside in. Individuals believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and pushed into transport, occasionally refused legal rights. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. The leader is harassing his opponents or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities transfer a massive sum of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are deployed across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, rebranded the War Department, has practically freed itself of regular press examination while it uses possibly reaching close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are submitting under the president’s threats, and billionaires are handled as nobility.
“The US, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the limit into autocracy and totalitarianism,” an American historian, commented recently. “Ultimately, faster than I believed likely, it occurred in this country.”
Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how severely declined we are, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.
Yet, we understand that Trump was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the warnings associated with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following the president personally stated openly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens chose him instead of his Democratic opponent.
As terrifying as the current reality may be, it's more frightening to recognize that we have only been several months into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this downfall leave us? And what if the three years turns into an prolonged era, because there is nobody to limit this ruler from opting that additional tenure is necessary, maybe for security concerns?
Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections in 2026 that could create a new balance of power, if Democrats recapture either chamber of Congress. We have public servants who are trying to exert certain responsibility, like lawmakers that are starting a probe regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.
And a national vote in the next cycle could start the path to healing just as the prior selection placed us on this regrettable path.
There are millions of Americans marching in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed recently at democracy demonstrations.
An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of America is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid anti-war demonstrations or during the seventies crisis.
On those occasions, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.
Reich says he recognizes the signs of that awakening and sees it happening at present. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the broad, multi-faction opposition against a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish authorized information.
“The dormant force perpetually exists dormant before specific greed turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that he has no choice but to awaken.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.
In the meantime, the major inquiries remain: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its status in the world and its commitment to constitutional order?
Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My cynical mind tells me that the second option is true; that all may indeed be lost. My hopeful heart, however, convinces me that we need to strive, in whatever ways available.
Personally, as an observer of the press, that means encouraging reporters to live up, more fully, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it might involve working on congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is try to persevere.
What Provides Me Encouragement Today
The contact I encounter with students with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and grounded, {always
