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In late October 2024, the environment was entirely different. Prior to the national election, considerate Americans could admit the country's serious imperfections – its inequities and inequality – but they still could perceive it as the US. A democratic nation. A country where constitutional order held significance. A state led by a respectable and ethical public servant, even with his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, in late October 2025, many of us scarcely know the country we reside in. Persons believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and forced into transport, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed to build a lavish ballroom. Donald Trump is harassing his political rivals or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent into American cities under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has – in effect – freed itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Colleges, legal practices, news companies are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and extremism,” an American historian, wrote recently. “In the end, faster than I believed likely, it did happen in America.”

One awakes to new horrors. It is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and the speed at which it unfolded.

Yet, we know that Trump was legitimately chosen. Despite his highly troubling previous administration and following the warnings associated with the understanding of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly declared plainly he would be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters selected him rather than his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the present situation is, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been nine months under this leadership. Where will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And what if the three years transforms into an prolonged era, since there is nobody to limit this president from opting that another term is required, perhaps for security concerns?

Granted, there is still hope. There will be congressional elections the coming year that could bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. We have elected officials who are striving to impose some accountability, for example lawmakers that are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote in the next cycle could begin the path to recovery exactly as last year’s election placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are numerous residents protesting in urban areas of their cities, similar to recent last weekend during anti-authority protests.

A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the US is awakening”, similar to past following the Red Scare in that decade or amid anti-war demonstrations or during the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

He claims he recognizes the signals of that resurgence and notices it unfolding now. As evidence, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a personality's dismissal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to the defense department’s demands they report only approved content.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays asleep before specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that the giant is compelled except to rise.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the crucial issues endure: is the US able to ever recover? Can it reclaim its standing internationally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts suggests that the latter is correct; that everything might be finished. My optimistic spirit, however, tells me that we need to strive, by any means available.

For me, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to commit, more thoroughly, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For different individuals, it may be participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we were in an alternate reality. In the future? Or three years from now? The fact is, we cannot predict. All we can do is try to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I experience in the classroom with young journalists, who are equally hopeful and realistic, {always