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One year ago, the landscape was entirely different. Prior to the US presidential election, reflective citizens could admit the nation's significant faults – its unfairness and imbalance – but they could still see it as the United States. A free society. A land where legal governance carried weight. A nation guided by a dignified and upright public servant, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the country we reside in. People suspected of being undocumented migrants are detained and pushed into vans, at times denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque dance hall. The leader is targeting his adversaries or alleged foes and demanding federal prosecutors surrender a massive sum of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are deployed to US urban areas under fabricated reasons. The military command, relabeled the War Department, has – in effect – freed itself of routine media oversight as it spends possibly reaching nearly $1tn of taxpayer money. Universities, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are handled as nobility.

“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into authoritarianism and fascism,” a noted author, stated this past summer. “Finally, more quickly than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – just how far gone our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we know that Trump was legitimately chosen. Following his deeply disturbing first term and even after the cautions linked to the awareness of Project 2025 – despite Trump himself stated openly he intended to act as an autocrat just on day one – a majority of citizens chose him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it's more frightening to recognize that we are just several months into this administration. What will three more years of this deterioration position us? And what if that period transforms into a more extended duration, since there is nobody to stop this president from determining that another term is essential, possibly for national security reasons?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be congressional elections the coming year that may create a new balance of power, if Democrats regain the Senate or House of Congress. There are public servants who are striving to impose certain responsibility, like representatives currently launching an investigation regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a national vote three years from now could start us down the road to recovery precisely as the prior selection put us on this regrettable path.

We see numerous residents protesting in the streets throughout communities, similar to recent last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is stirring”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or during anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening now. For proof, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the largely united rejection by reporters to accept government requirements they report only what is sanctioned.

“The sleeping giant perpetually exists asleep till specific greed becomes so noxious, some action so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so noisy, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

At the same time, the crucial issues remain: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its position globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My negative thoughts indicates that the second option is correct; that everything could be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For some people, it might involve participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The interaction I encounter with students with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously idealistic and grounded, {always