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One year ago, the situation was completely distinct. Before the American presidential vote, considerate residents could recognize the country's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – however they continued to identify it as the US. A democracy. A country where the rule of law meant something. A country led by a dignified and decent leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the country we reside in. People alleged as unauthorized foreigners are detained and pushed into transport, sometimes denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque event space. The leader is targeting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting the justice department surrender a huge total of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are deployed across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The military command, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has effectively rid itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Universities, attorney offices, media outlets are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as aristocracy.

“America, shortly prior to its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the edge toward dictatorship and fascism,” an American historian, stated recently. “Ultimately, swifter than I imagined possible, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it's hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – just how far gone our nation is, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, it is known that the president was properly voted in. Even after his profoundly alarming previous administration and despite the alerts linked to the awareness of the conservative plan – following the president personally stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters elected him rather than Kamala Harris.

While alarming as today's circumstances may be, it's more frightening to recognize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will three more years of this deterioration find us? And if that timeframe transforms into something even longer, as there is nobody to stop this president from determining that a third term is required, possibly for defense purposes?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be midterm elections next year that may bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. We have government representatives who are trying to apply certain responsibility, such as representatives that are initiating an inquiry into the attempted money grab from the justice department.

And a leadership election three years from now could start the path to healing precisely as last year’s election put us on this regrettable path.

There exist countless citizens marching in the streets throughout communities, similar to recent in the past days during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of America is stirring”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or during the sixties activism or during the Nixon controversy.

In those instances, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the signals of that awakening and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he points to the recent massive protests, the extensive, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive before certain corruption grows too toxic, an specific act so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”

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

At the same time, the major inquiries persist: will the nation regain its footing? Can it retrieve its status globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind tells me that the final scenario is true; that all may indeed be lost. My hopeful heart, though, tells me that we must try, through all methods possible.

Personally, working in journalism analysis, that involves urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve working on political races, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to protect ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is to strive to persevere.

What Offers Me Hope Now

The engagement I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are equally hopeful and practical, {always