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In late October 2024, the situation was entirely separate. Ahead of the national election, reflective Americans could admit the country's serious imperfections – its unfairness and inequality – however they could still identify it as the United States. A free society. A place where the rule of law held significance. A nation headed by a respectable and ethical public servant, notwithstanding his elderly years and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the land we live in. Persons alleged as undocumented migrants are detained and pushed into vans, sometimes refused legal rights. The East Wing of the White House – is being destroyed for an obscene ballroom. Donald Trump is persecuting his opponents or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities transfer a huge total of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The military command, relabeled the War Department, has practically freed itself of routine media oversight while it uses potentially totaling close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Universities, attorney offices, journalism organizations are buckling from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are handled as aristocracy.

“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the limit toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Finally, more quickly than I thought feasible, it did happen in America.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. And it's hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the speed at which it has happened.

Yet, we know that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his deeply disturbing first term and following the alerts associated with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself stated openly he intended to be a dictator solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him instead of the other candidate.

Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will an additional three years of this deterioration position us? And if that period becomes an prolonged era, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, maybe for national security reasons?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. We will have midterm elections next year which might create a new governmental control, in case Democrats retake one or both houses of the legislature. We have public servants who are trying to impose certain responsibility, like representatives that are launching an investigation into the attempted money grab from the justice department.

And a national vote three years from now could start the path to healing precisely as last year’s election placed us on this regrettable path.

There exist countless citizens marching in urban areas across municipalities, similar to recent recently at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is awakening”, exactly as before following the Red Scare in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.

During those times, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.

Reich says he understands the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening at present. For proof, he references the recent massive protests, the broad, cross-party resistance to a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to agree to military mandates they only publish authorized information.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep before specific greed becomes so noxious, some action so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so disruptive, that the giant is forced other than to stir.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the crucial issues remain: can America regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing internationally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind tells me that the latter is accurate; that everything could be lost. My hopeful heart, however, advises me that we have to attempt, by any means we can.

In my case, as a media critic, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it could mean working on election efforts, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we cannot predict. All we can do is try to persevere.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I experience during teaching with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always