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Twelve months back, the environment was utterly distinct. Prior to the American presidential vote, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge America's serious imperfections – its injustices and disparity – however they could still see it as the US. A free society. A place where constitutional order meant something. A state led by a respectable and upright public servant, even with his older age and declining health.

These days, in late October 2025, many of us barely recognize the land we reside in. Persons suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and forced into transport, at times denied due process. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. The president is harassing his political rivals or perceived antagonists and demanding federal prosecutors hand over a huge total of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The military command, relabeled the Department of War, has – in effect – liberated itself of regular press examination while it uses possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Universities, legal practices, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like nobility.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge into authoritarianism and extremism,” Garrett Graff, wrote recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in this country.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. It is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

Yet, we understand that the president was properly voted in. Even after his deeply disturbing first term and even after the alerts associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – despite Trump himself said publicly he intended to rule as a tyrant only on the first day – sufficient voters chose him over the other candidate.

While alarming as the present situation are, it's more daunting to recognize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this decline leave us? And suppose that period transforms into something even longer, because there is not anyone to restrain this ruler from deciding that a third term is essential, possibly for national security reasons?

Granted, there is still hope. There are congressional elections next year that could create a new governmental control, if Democrats regain the Senate or House of parliament. We have government representatives who are striving to impose certain responsibility, such as Democratic congressmen currently initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a presidential election three years from now could begin us down the road to recovery exactly as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.

We see countless citizens demonstrating in urban areas across municipalities, as they did in the past days during anti-authority protests.

A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of America is rising”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during anti-war demonstrations or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.

Reich says he knows the signs of that revival and notices it unfolding at present. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The sleeping giant always remains dormant before some venality grows too toxic, an specific act so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so disruptive, that he is compelled other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may prove to be right.

At the same time, the major inquiries persist: will the nation regain its footing? Can it reclaim its standing globally and its devotion to constitutional order?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, though, advises me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways we can.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that’s about encouraging reporters to adhere, more fully, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it may be participating in congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. The only option is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I encounter in the classroom with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously hopeful and grounded, {always