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One year ago, the landscape was entirely different. Before the national election, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and imbalance – however they could still identify it as America. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order carried weight. A state led by a dignified and decent public servant, even with his advanced age and declining health.

These days, this autumn, countless Americans hardly identify the land we reside in. People suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and shoved into vans, at times denied due process. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish dance hall. The president is persecuting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and requesting the justice department surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Department of War, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Institutions, legal practices, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.

“America, just months before its 250^th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” an American historian, commented in August. “Ultimately, faster than I thought feasible, it occurred in America.”

One awakes to new horrors. It is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we have become, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

Yet, we understand that Trump was legitimately chosen. Following his highly troubling first term and despite the alerts linked to the knowledge of the conservative plan – following the leader directly stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant only on the first day – sufficient voters chose him instead of the other candidate.

As terrifying as the current reality may be, it’s even scarier to understand that we have only been several months under this leadership. How will three more years of this deterioration leave us? And if that period turns into an prolonged era, as there is not anyone to restrain this president from deciding that additional tenure is required, maybe for security concerns?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections in 2026 that may create a new balance of power, in case Democrats retake the Senate or House of parliament. We have public servants who are trying to impose certain responsibility, like representatives that are launching an investigation regarding the effort to money grab from legal authorities.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could initiate our journey to healing precisely as the prior selection set us on this regrettable path.

There are millions of Americans demonstrating in public spaces across municipalities, as they did in the past days in the No Kings rallies.

A former official, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he knows the indicators of that revival and sees it happening at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, bipartisan pushback regarding a television host's removal and the almost universal rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they report only what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity always remains dormant until specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, some brutality so disruptive, that it is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Possibly he may prove to be right.

At the same time, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its status globally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is accurate; that everything could be lost. My hopeful heart, though, advises me that we have to attempt, by any means possible.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that involves pushing media professionals to live up, more completely, to their purpose of holding power to account. For different individuals, it may be participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to protect voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we lived in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Hope Now

The interaction I have during teaching with new media professionals, who are equally idealistic and realistic, {always