The Tragic Shift Only 12 Months Has Caused in the US
One year ago, the situation was completely separate. Ahead of the US presidential election, reflective citizens could recognize the country's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – yet they still could see it as America. A democratic nation. A place where the rule of law carried weight. A nation led by a dignified and decent official, notwithstanding his elderly years and declining health.
Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens scarcely know the land we reside in. Persons suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into vans, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. Donald Trump is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors surrender a huge total of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The military command, rebranded the Department of War, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are treated like aristocracy.
“America, just months before its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated in August. “Finally, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in America.”
Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. It is hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and the speed at which it unfolded.
However, it is known that Trump was legitimately chosen. Even after his deeply disturbing initial presidency and even after the alerts linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – following the president personally declared plainly he would be a dictator only on the first day – enough Americans selected him rather than the other candidate.
As terrifying as the present situation may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just several months under this leadership. Where will three more years of this decline find us? And if the three years becomes a more extended duration, as there is nobody to stop this president from deciding that a third term is necessary, maybe for national security reasons?
Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are legislative votes in 2026 that may bring a different political equilibrium, in case Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert some accountability, such as representatives that are initiating an inquiry concerning the try to money grab from the justice department.
And a presidential election in 2028 could start us down the road to healing precisely as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.
There exist numerous residents marching in the streets across municipalities, similar to recent last weekend at democracy demonstrations.
An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of America is rising”, similar to past following the Red Scare in the 1950s or throughout the sixties activism or in the Watergate scandal.
On those occasions, the unstable nation eventually was righted.
He claims he understands the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring now. As evidence, he references the widespread marches, the broad, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to agree to government requirements they report only approved content.
“The dormant force perpetually exists inactive until certain corruption grows too toxic, some action so contemptuous toward public welfare, specific cruelty so disruptive, that it has no choice except to rise.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.
In the meantime, the big questions remain: can America ever recover? Can it retrieve its position in the world and its devotion to the rule of law?
Or should we recognize that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My pessimistic brain indicates that the latter is correct; that everything could be gone. My optimistic spirit, though, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways available.
In my case, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more completely, to their duty of holding power to account. For different individuals, it could mean working on political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.
Not even one year prior, we existed in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to persevere.
What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently
The engagement I encounter with students with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always
