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Twelve months back, the environment was completely different. Prior to the national election, reflective residents could acknowledge the country's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – yet they still could identify it as the US. A free society. A country where constitutional order meant something. A nation guided by a respectable and decent official, even with his older age and growing weakness.

Currently, in late October 2025, numerous citizens barely recognize the country we inhabit. People believed to be illegal immigrants are collected and shoved into vehicles, sometimes refused legal rights. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being torn down for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors surrender an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are being sent across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Institutions, law firms, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are regarded as members of the royal family.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the limit into autocracy and totalitarianism,” an American historian, stated recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how severely declined our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

Yet, it is known that the leader was legitimately chosen. Even after his highly troubling initial presidency and following the warnings that came with the knowledge of Project 2025 – following the president personally said publicly he would act as an autocrat only on the first day – enough Americans elected him instead of the other candidate.

While alarming as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to recognize that we’re only several months under this leadership. Where will an additional three years of this downfall leave us? And if that timeframe becomes something even longer, as there is not anyone to limit this president from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, possibly for national security reasons?

Admittedly, all is not lost. We will have midterm elections in 2026 that could bring a different balance of power, in case Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist public servants who are trying to impose some accountability, such as Democratic congressmen that are launching an investigation concerning the try to money grab from legal authorities.

And a leadership election in the next cycle could initiate our journey to recovery exactly as the prior selection set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are millions of Americans demonstrating in urban areas across municipalities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

The author states he understands the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening now. As support, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to government requirements they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force perpetually exists asleep before some venality grows too toxic, an specific act so offensive of societal benefit, some brutality so noisy, that the giant is compelled other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

At the same time, the crucial issues remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its standing globally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain suggests that the second option is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My positive feelings, nevertheless, tells me that we have to attempt, by any means we can.

For me, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to safeguard ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we were in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The contact I have with students with young journalists, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always