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Twelve months back, the landscape was completely different. Prior to the US presidential election, thoughtful residents could acknowledge the nation's significant faults – its inequities and inequality – but they could still identify it as the United States. A democratic nation. A land where the rule of law meant something. A nation headed by a respectable and ethical official, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the country we inhabit. People believed to be undocumented migrants are detained and shoved into transport, at times refused legal rights. The eastern section of the White House – is being torn down to build a lavish ballroom. The president is persecuting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and demanding federal prosecutors surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent into American cities with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has – in effect – rid itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding under the president’s threats, and billionaires are regarded as nobility.

“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and extremism,” a noted author, stated this past summer. “In the end, faster than I believed likely, it transpired here.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it is challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – just how far gone we have become, and how quickly it has happened.

Nevertheless, we understand that the president was duly elected. Even after his profoundly alarming previous administration and despite the cautions that came with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after the leader directly said publicly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens selected him instead of the other candidate.

As terrifying as the current reality may be, it's more daunting to recognize that we’re only several months under this leadership. How will three more years of this deterioration find us? And suppose the three years transforms into a more extended duration, as there is no one to stop this ruler from deciding that additional tenure is essential, maybe for national security reasons?

Granted, all is not lost. We will have congressional elections the coming year that could create a new political equilibrium, in case Democrats regain one or both houses of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, like Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a leadership election in 2028 could start the path to recovery exactly as last year’s election placed us on this regrettable path.

There are millions of Americans marching in the streets across municipalities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of America is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism during the fifties or during anti-war demonstrations or in the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the signs of that awakening and notices it unfolding currently. For proof, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, bipartisan pushback against a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to agree to government requirements they only publish approved content.

“The sleeping giant always remains asleep till specific greed grows too toxic, some action so offensive of the common good, certain violence so noisy, that it is forced but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.

In the meantime, the crucial issues remain: can America ever recover? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is true; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, however, tells me that we must try, through all methods available.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that’s about encouraging reporters to live up, more completely, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For others, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we were in a separate situation. A year from now? Or after another term? The reality is, we are uncertain. The only option is to strive to persevere.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I have with students with young journalists, who are both idealistic and practical, {always