A Devastating Transformation Just One Year Has Caused in the US
In late October 2024, the landscape was completely different. Prior to the national election, thoughtful Americans could recognize the country's significant faults – its injustices and imbalance – yet they still could perceive it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order held significance. A nation guided by a dignified and decent public servant, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.
These days, in late October 2025, numerous citizens scarcely know the nation we live in. Individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants are rounded up and shoved into vehicles, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed to build a lavish ballroom. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or perceived antagonists and insisting the justice department transfer a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are deployed across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Department of War, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching close to a trillion USD in public funds. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.
“America, just months before its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” a noted author, wrote this past summer. “Finally, more quickly than I thought feasible, it transpired in this country.”
Every morning starts with fresh terrors. It is challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how severely declined our nation is, and the speed at which it unfolded.
Nevertheless, it is known that the leader was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing previous administration and following the alerts associated with the knowledge of the conservative plan – even after the president personally declared plainly he intended to act as an autocrat solely at the start – sufficient voters elected him rather than Kamala Harris.
While alarming as today's circumstances is, it's more daunting to recognize that we have only been three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. How will another 36 months of this downfall position us? And if that timeframe transforms into a more extended duration, since there is nobody to stop this president from opting that additional tenure is necessary, perhaps for defense purposes?
Granted, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that could bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats retake either chamber of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to impose certain responsibility, for example lawmakers currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to fund seizure from legal authorities.
And a presidential election in the next cycle could begin our journey to recovery precisely as the prior selection placed us on this disappointing trajectory.
We see millions of Americans protesting in urban areas of their cities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.
Robert Reich, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of America is rising”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.
In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.
He claims he understands the signs of that resurgence and sees it happening now. As support, he references the recent massive protests, the broad, bipartisan pushback regarding a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to accept the defense department’s demands they report only authorized information.
“The dormant force always remains dormant until specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so disrespectful toward public welfare, certain violence so disruptive, that the giant is compelled but to awaken.”
It's a positive outlook, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.
At the same time, the major inquiries persist: can America regain its footing? Can it retrieve its position globally and its devotion to the rule of law?
Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the latter is accurate; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we have to attempt, by any means we can.
In my case, as a media critic, that means urging journalists to commit, more fully, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it could mean working on political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to protect voting rights.
Under twelve months back, we lived in a very different place. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we cannot predict. All we can do is try to continue fighting.
What Offers Me Encouragement Today
The contact I have during teaching with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always
