A Tragic Transformation Just One Year Has Made in America

One year ago, the environment was entirely different. Before the national election, thoughtful citizens could admit the country's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – however they could still perceive it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order held significance. A state led by a honorable and upright leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.

Currently, in late October 2025, many of us scarcely know the country we live in. Persons alleged as undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into vehicles, sometimes denied due process. The eastern section of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene ballroom. The president is persecuting his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting the justice department surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has practically liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, news companies are yielding from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as members of the royal family.

“America, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into autocracy and extremism,” Garrett Graff, commented in August. “In the end, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in America.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. It is challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Yet, it is known that Trump was legitimately chosen. Despite his highly troubling initial presidency and despite the warnings linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – despite the president personally said publicly he would act as an autocrat just on day one – sufficient voters elected him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the present situation are, it's more daunting to understand that we’re only nine months into this administration. What will an additional three years of this downfall find us? And what if the three years transforms into a more extended duration, as there is not anyone to stop this leader from opting that another term is required, maybe for security concerns?

Granted, there is still hope. There are congressional elections the coming year which might bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. There exist elected officials who are striving to exert a degree of oversight, for example representatives who are starting a probe regarding the effort to cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote three years from now could start the path to recovery just as the previous vote set us on this unfortunate course.

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

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in the 1950s or throughout anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he understands the signs of that awakening and notices it unfolding now. As support, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition to a television host's removal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to military mandates they solely cover authorized information.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays inactive till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that he is forced except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will be validated.

At the same time, the major inquiries persist: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain indicates that the second option is accurate; that everything could be gone. My hopeful heart, however, tells me that we have to attempt, by any means we can.

For me, as a media critic, that involves urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For different individuals, it might involve engaging with congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to defend 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 don’t know. Our sole course is to strive to not give up.

What Provides Me Hope Now

The interaction I experience with students with new media professionals, who are equally hopeful and grounded, {always