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In late October 2024, the situation was entirely different. Ahead of the US presidential election, reflective residents could admit the country's significant faults – its unfairness and imbalance – yet they still could identify it as the United States. A democracy. A place where constitutional order carried weight. A country guided by a honorable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his advanced age and declining health.

These days, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans barely recognize the land we reside in. Individuals alleged as undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into vans, at times denied due process. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque ballroom. The president is targeting his opponents or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities surrender a huge total of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are deployed into American cities on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, relabeled the War Department, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Institutions, legal practices, media outlets are submitting from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are handled as aristocracy.

“America, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the limit toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, swifter than I thought feasible, it did happen here.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how severely declined our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

However, it is known that Trump was properly voted in. Even after his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the warnings associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the president personally declared plainly he planned to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

While alarming as the present situation are, it's more daunting to realize that we have only been three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. Where will another 36 months of this decline position us? And what if the three years turns into something even longer, because there is no one to limit this president from determining that another term is essential, perhaps for security concerns?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There are congressional elections the coming year that could establish an alternate governmental control, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are attempting to exert a degree of oversight, like lawmakers currently launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.

And a national vote in 2028 could initiate our journey to recovery precisely as the previous vote placed us on this regrettable path.

We see millions of Americans marching in the streets across municipalities, similar to recent recently at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he understands the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding at present. For proof, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal defiance by media to accept military mandates they report only approved content.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive before certain corruption turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so disrespectful toward public welfare, specific cruelty so noisy, that he is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the big questions persist: is the US able to ever recover? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind indicates that the second option is accurate; that all may indeed be gone. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, by any means possible.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that means urging journalists to commit, more thoroughly, to their mission of holding power to account. For different individuals, it could mean participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we are uncertain. All we can do is to strive to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I have in the classroom with young journalists, who are both idealistic and grounded, {always