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One year ago, the landscape was utterly different. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge America's significant faults – its inequities and disparity – however they could still see it as the United States. A free society. A place where legal governance held significance. A nation led by a honorable and upright leader, notwithstanding his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans barely recognize the nation we inhabit. Persons believed to be illegal immigrants are rounded up and pushed into vans, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the White House – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque dance hall. Donald Trump is harassing his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding the justice department transfer a huge total of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, just months before its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the edge into authoritarianism and fascism,” an American historian, commented in August. “In the end, more quickly than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we understand that the president was properly voted in. Following his highly troubling initial presidency and following the cautions linked to the knowledge of the conservative plan – following the president personally stated openly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – enough Americans chose him rather than Kamala Harris.

Frightening as the current reality are, it's more daunting to realize that we are just nine months into this presidential term. How will an additional three years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that period becomes something even longer, since there is nobody to restrain this president from determining that a third term is essential, maybe for security concerns?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. We will have legislative votes the coming year that could create a new balance of power, should Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. We have public servants who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, like lawmakers that are launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate the path to healing just as last year’s election placed us on this regrettable path.

There exist numerous residents protesting in the streets throughout communities, like they performed last weekend during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the dormant powerhouse of America is rising”, similar to past following the Red Scare in the 1950s or amid the Vietnam war protests or during the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the listing ship eventually was righted.

The author states he knows the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening at present. For proof, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, bipartisan pushback to a personality's dismissal and the largely united defiance by media to accept government requirements they only publish approved content.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists inactive before certain corruption grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so noisy, that the giant is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the big questions remain: will the nation return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its commitment to legal principles?

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

My negative thoughts indicates that the second option is true; that all may indeed be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we have to attempt, by any means we can.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that involves pushing media professionals to commit, more fully, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For different individuals, it may be working on political races, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to protect ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or in several years? The truth is, we cannot predict. The only option is to attempt to persevere.

What Offers Me Hope Now

The engagement I encounter in the classroom with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always