The Heartbreaking Shift a Single Year Has Brought in America
One year ago, the landscape was entirely distinct. Before the American presidential vote, considerate residents could recognize America's serious imperfections – its injustices and imbalance – however they still could perceive it as the US. A democratic nation. A country where the rule of law carried weight. A nation headed by a dignified and ethical leader, even with his elderly years and growing weakness.
These days, in late October 2025, countless Americans scarcely know the country we live in. People suspected of being undocumented migrants are detained and forced into transport, sometimes denied due process. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque ballroom. The leader is harassing his opponents or perceived antagonists and requesting the justice department hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The military command, relabeled the Department of War, has practically liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are submitting from leader's menaces, and rich magnates are handled as aristocracy.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the edge toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented in August. “In the end, faster than I thought feasible, it transpired in America.”
Each day begins to new horrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we are, and how quickly it unfolded.
Nevertheless, we understand that the leader was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the alerts that came with the awareness of Project 2025 – even after the leader directly stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters selected him over Kamala Harris.
Frightening as today's circumstances are, it's more daunting to understand that we’re only several months into this presidential term. Where will another 36 months of this decline find us? And if that timeframe becomes an prolonged era, because there is no one to stop this president from opting that a third term is necessary, maybe for national security reasons?
Admittedly, all is not lost. There are congressional elections the coming year that may establish an alternate governmental control, if Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. We have public servants who are trying to apply certain responsibility, such as representatives who are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a leadership election in the next cycle could initiate us down the road to healing precisely as last year’s election set us on this unfortunate course.
There are millions of Americans demonstrating in urban areas across municipalities, as they did in the past days in the No Kings rallies.
A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, exactly as before following the Red Scare in the 1950s or during the sixties activism or throughout the Nixon controversy.
In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he knows the signals of that resurgence and notices it unfolding currently. As support, he references the widespread marches, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover authorized information.
“The slumbering entity always remains dormant until some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so disruptive, that the giant has no choice other than to stir.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.
At the same time, the big questions persist: can America ever recover? Can it retrieve its status globally and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or should we recognize that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the latter is true; that everything could be gone. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we need to strive, by any means we can.
In my case, working in journalism analysis, that’s about pushing media professionals to commit, more fully, to their mission of holding power to account. For others, it could mean working on congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.
Under twelve months back, we were in a separate situation. A year from now? Or after another term? The truth is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to not give up.
What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today
The interaction I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always
