The Devastating Change Just One Year Has Brought in the United States

In late October 2024, the landscape was utterly different. Prior to the national election, thoughtful residents could recognize the nation's deep flaws – its injustices and disparity – however they still could perceive it as America. A democratic nation. A land where the rule of law meant something. A state guided by a respectable and upright leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and increasing frailty.

These days, this autumn, countless Americans hardly identify the land we inhabit. Persons suspected of being undocumented migrants are detained and pushed into vehicles, occasionally denied due process. The left side of the White House – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is targeting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities hand over a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, relabeled the War Department, has – in effect – freed itself of regular press examination as it spends possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are treated like members of the royal family.

“America, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the edge toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated in August. “In the end, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen in this country.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we understand that the leader was legitimately chosen. Even after his profoundly alarming first term and even after the alerts associated with the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself declared plainly he intended to act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens selected him instead of Kamala Harris.

While alarming as the present situation is, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. How will an additional three years of this downfall find us? And suppose that timeframe becomes a more extended duration, as there is not anyone to limit this president from opting that a third term is required, perhaps for national security reasons?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be legislative votes in 2026 that may create a new balance of power, should Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to impose a degree of oversight, like representatives who are starting a probe concerning the try to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could initiate our journey to recovery precisely as the previous vote put us on this unfortunate course.

There exist countless citizens marching in public spaces throughout communities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism during the fifties or throughout the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the signs of that resurgence and sees it happening currently. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the extensive, cross-party resistance against a television host's removal and the largely united refusal by journalists to sign the defense department’s demands they report only approved content.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive before some venality becomes so noxious, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that the giant has no choice other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll be validated.

At the same time, the major inquiries endure: can America regain its footing? Can it reclaim its position in the world and its devotion to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts tells me that the second option is accurate; that everything might be gone. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we must try, by any means we can.

Personally, as an observer of the press, that’s about encouraging reporters to live up, more completely, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it could mean engaging with political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to protect voting rights.

Not even one year prior, we lived in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. The only option is to strive to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Hope Now

The interaction I encounter during teaching with new media professionals, that are simultaneously idealistic and grounded, {always