A Devastating Transformation Just One Year Has Made in the United States
In late October 2024, the situation was completely different. Ahead of the national election, considerate citizens could admit the nation's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – but they still could identify it as America. A free society. A land where legal governance carried weight. A country headed by a respectable and upright public servant, despite his advanced age and growing weakness.
Nowadays, in late October 2025, many of us hardly identify the country we reside in. People believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into transport, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is being torn down for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is harassing his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding legal authorities transfer an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are deployed across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, renamed the Department of War, has effectively freed itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Institutions, law firms, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are handled as members of the royal family.
“The United States, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” a noted author, stated in August. “Finally, swifter than I imagined possible, it occurred in America.”
Each day begins to new horrors. It is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we have become, and how quickly it occurred.
Nevertheless, it is known that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his highly troubling previous administration and following the cautions that came with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following the president personally said publicly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him over his Democratic opponent.
As terrifying as the current reality may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we’re only three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. How will three more years of this downfall leave us? And suppose that period becomes something even longer, as there is no one to restrain this president from opting that a third term is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?
Certainly, there is still hope. There will be legislative votes the coming year that may establish an alternate governmental control, if Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. There are government representatives who are striving to impose a degree of oversight, for example representatives who are launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.
And a leadership election in 2028 could initiate the path to recovery precisely as the previous vote placed us on this regrettable path.
We see millions of Americans demonstrating in public spaces of their cities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.
A former official, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the sixties activism or in the Watergate scandal.
On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.
The author states he understands the indicators of that revival and notices it unfolding now. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition against a broadcaster's firing and the largely united rejection by reporters to agree to military mandates they report only authorized information.
“The dormant force perpetually exists inactive before specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous toward public welfare, certain violence so noisy, that he is forced but to awaken.”
It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may be validated.
Meanwhile, the crucial issues remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its commitment to legal principles?
Or should we recognize that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My negative thoughts tells me that the latter is accurate; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we need to strive, in whatever ways available.
For me, working in journalism analysis, that’s about pushing media professionals to commit, more completely, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For some people, it could mean engaging with congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to protect voting rights.
Under twelve months back, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or in several years? The truth is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to strive to not give up.
What Provides Me Optimism Currently
The engagement I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always