🔗 Share this article

Twelve months back, the landscape was utterly distinct. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could admit the nation's deep flaws – its injustices and disparity – but they still could identify it as the United States. A free society. A country where the rule of law meant something. A nation guided by a dignified and upright leader, despite his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the nation we inhabit. Persons suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into transport, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities surrender a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has practically freed itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of possibly reaching nearly $1tn in public funds. Institutions, legal practices, news companies are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and fascism,” an American historian, stated this past summer. “Finally, swifter than I believed likely, it transpired in this country.”

Each day begins to new horrors. It is challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we have become, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, we understand that the president was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing previous administration and following the cautions associated with the understanding of the conservative plan – following Trump himself declared plainly he would be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans elected him instead of his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as today's circumstances is, it's more frightening to recognize that we’re only several months into this administration. Where will another 36 months of this deterioration position us? And what if the three years transforms into something even longer, as there is no one to limit this leader from opting that a third term is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections in 2026 that could bring a different balance of power, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of Congress. There exist government representatives who are attempting to apply some accountability, for example lawmakers currently launching an investigation concerning the try to fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a national vote in 2028 could begin us down the road toward restoration precisely as the previous vote placed us on this regrettable path.

There exist millions of Americans marching in public spaces of their cities, like they performed recently at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or amid anti-war demonstrations or during the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.

Reich says he understands the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As support, he references the widespread marches, the extensive, cross-party resistance regarding a television host's removal and the largely united defiance by media to accept military mandates they only publish authorized information.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays asleep until specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that it is compelled but to awaken.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the major inquiries persist: can America return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its status internationally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is true; that all may indeed be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, tells me that we must try, through all methods available.

Personally, as an observer of the press, that means pushing media professionals to commit, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For others, it could mean participating in congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to safeguard ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to strive to not give up.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I experience during teaching with young journalists, who are both idealistic and practical, {always