A Devastating Transformation Only 12 Months Has Made in America
Twelve months back, the situation was completely distinct. Before the American presidential vote, considerate citizens could acknowledge the country's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – but they continued to see it as America. A democracy. A place where constitutional order carried weight. A state headed by a respectable and decent leader, despite his older age and growing weakness.
Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the land we reside in. People alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and shoved into vehicles, at times denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for an obscene ballroom. The president is targeting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding the justice department transfer a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are deployed into American cities with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, rebranded the Department of War, has practically liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, law firms, media outlets are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like members of the royal family.
“The United States, shortly prior to its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated in August. “Ultimately, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in this country.”
Every morning starts to new horrors. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how severely declined we have become, and how quickly it occurred.
However, it is known that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the cautions associated with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after the president personally said publicly he would be a dictator just on day one – a majority of citizens chose him over the other candidate.
As terrifying as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just nine months into this presidential term. Where will three more years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that timeframe becomes a more extended duration, as there is not anyone to stop this ruler from determining that another term is essential, maybe for defense purposes?
Granted, all is not lost. There are legislative votes in 2026 which might create a new balance of power, if Democrats regain one or both houses of the legislature. We have government representatives who are striving to impose some accountability, for example Democratic congressmen that are initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.
And a national vote three years from now could initiate our journey to healing just as the previous vote put us on this disappointing trajectory.
There are numerous residents demonstrating in the streets throughout communities, similar to recent in the past days at democracy demonstrations.
Robert Reich, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of America is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or during the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.
The author states he understands the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring now. As evidence, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, multi-faction opposition regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish authorized information.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays asleep before some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so disrespectful of the common good, specific cruelty so loud, that it has no choice other than to stir.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may prove to be right.
Meanwhile, the major inquiries endure: can America return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its status globally and its commitment to constitutional order?
Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My negative thoughts indicates that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be gone. My positive feelings, though, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways available.
For me, as an observer of the press, that means encouraging reporters to live up, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For others, it could mean engaging with congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to protect electoral access.
Under twelve months back, we were in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to persevere.
What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today
The interaction I have in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and grounded, {always
