The Tragic Transformation Just One Year Has Brought in America

One year ago, the situation was utterly distinct. Ahead of the American presidential vote, reflective citizens could acknowledge America's serious imperfections – its unfairness and disparity – but they continued to perceive it as America. A democracy. A place where legal governance carried weight. A nation guided by a respectable and ethical leader, despite his older age and increasing frailty.

These days, in late October 2025, numerous citizens hardly identify the land we inhabit. Persons believed to be illegal immigrants are rounded up and forced into vans, sometimes refused legal rights. The left side of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition for an obscene dance hall. The president is harassing his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding the justice department hand over a huge total of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has effectively liberated itself of regular press examination as it spends what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Universities, legal practices, journalism organizations are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are handled as nobility.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen here.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how severely declined we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

Nevertheless, we understand that the leader was legitimately chosen. Following his highly troubling previous administration and despite the cautions associated with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – even after the president personally stated openly he would be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans selected him rather than the other candidate.

Frightening as the current reality may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been nine months under this leadership. What will another 36 months of this decline find us? And what if the three years transforms into something even longer, since there is nobody to restrain this ruler from deciding that another term is required, perhaps for defense purposes?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that may bring a different political equilibrium, in case Democrats retake the Senate or House of parliament. There exist elected officials who are striving to exert some accountability, like lawmakers that are launching an investigation into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a national vote in 2028 could initiate the path toward restoration exactly as the prior selection put us on this unfortunate course.

We see millions of Americans protesting in public spaces across municipalities, as they did last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or throughout the Vietnam war protests or during the Watergate scandal.

On those occasions, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

The author states he knows the signals of that resurgence and sees it happening currently. As support, he cites the widespread marches, the extensive, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they solely cover authorized information.

“The sleeping giant always remains dormant till specific greed turns extremely harmful, some action so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that it has no choice but to awaken.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind tells me that the second option is correct; that everything could be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, through all methods we can.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that involves pushing media professionals to adhere, more completely, to their purpose of holding power to account. For others, it could mean participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to safeguard voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we were in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The reality is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is to attempt to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The contact I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always