The Devastating Shift Just One Year Has Made in the US
In late October 2024, the environment was utterly different. Before the national election, thoughtful citizens could recognize the nation's deep flaws – its injustices and disparity – yet they could still perceive it as the United States. A democracy. A land where legal governance meant something. A state headed by a respectable and upright public servant, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.
Nowadays, in late October 2025, countless Americans barely recognize the country we inhabit. People believed to be illegal immigrants are collected and forced into vehicles, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for an obscene event space. The leader is persecuting his political rivals or alleged foes and insisting the justice department surrender a huge total of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are deployed across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Institutions, law firms, journalism organizations are yielding under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are regarded as members of the royal family.
“The US, just months before its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, faster than I believed likely, it transpired here.”
Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – just how far gone our nation is, and the speed at which it occurred.
Yet, we know that the president was legitimately chosen. Following his profoundly alarming first term and even after the alerts that came with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after the leader directly said publicly he planned to be a dictator only on the first day – enough Americans chose him over Kamala Harris.
While alarming as the current reality may be, it's more frightening to understand that we’re only three-quarters of a year into this administration. How will three more years of this downfall leave us? And what if that timeframe turns into a more extended duration, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from determining that additional tenure is essential, possibly for national security reasons?
Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections next year which might bring a different balance of power, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of Congress. There are government representatives who are attempting to exert some accountability, such as representatives currently initiating an inquiry into the attempted money grab from legal authorities.
And a leadership election in the next cycle could start the path to healing precisely as last year’s election set us on this disappointing trajectory.
We see millions of Americans marching in the streets of their cities, as they did recently at democracy demonstrations.
Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is stirring”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or in the Watergate scandal.
During those times, the listing ship finally returned to balance.
The author states he understands the indicators of that revival and sees it happening now. As evidence, he references the recent massive protests, the broad, bipartisan pushback against a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to sign government requirements they solely cover authorized information.
“The slumbering entity consistently stays asleep before certain corruption turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so contemptuous toward public welfare, some brutality so disruptive, that it has no choice except to rise.”
It's a positive outlook, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.
In the meantime, the crucial issues remain: is the US able to ever recover? Is it possible to restore its position internationally and its devotion to the rule of law?
Or should we recognize that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My pessimistic brain suggests that the latter is accurate; that all may indeed be gone. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, tells me that we have to attempt, by any means possible.
Personally, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to adhere, more fully, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it may be engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to safeguard electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we lived in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we are uncertain. The only option is try to not give up.
What Provides Me Hope Now
The interaction I have with students with aspiring reporters, who are equally idealistic and grounded, {always
