The Devastating Change Only 12 Months Has Made in the US

One year ago, the landscape was utterly distinct. Prior to the national election, considerate Americans could recognize the nation's significant faults – its unfairness and imbalance – however they continued to see it as the US. A democracy. A land where legal governance held significance. A nation guided by a honorable and upright leader, notwithstanding his elderly years and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the country we reside in. Individuals suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into vans, at times refused legal rights. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being torn down for a grotesque ballroom. The president is harassing his opponents or perceived antagonists and demanding the justice department hand over a massive sum of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has – in effect – rid itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Institutions, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“The US, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into autocracy and fascism,” a noted author, stated recently. “In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we have become, and the speed at which it occurred.

However, it is known that the president was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the cautions linked to the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – even after the leader directly said publicly he would be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans elected him rather than the other candidate.

Frightening as the present situation is, it’s even scarier to realize that we’re only several months into this administration. Where will an additional three years of this decline leave us? And what if that timeframe becomes a more extended duration, as there is no one to stop this leader from deciding that another term is necessary, possibly for security concerns?

Granted, all is not lost. There are congressional elections in 2026 which might bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats recapture either chamber of parliament. There are elected officials who are trying to exert certain responsibility, like lawmakers who are launching an investigation concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could start the path to healing precisely as last year’s election placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist countless citizens marching in public spaces of their cities, like they performed last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the nation is stirring”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or amid anti-war demonstrations or in the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring at present. As support, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, bipartisan pushback against a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to sign the defense department’s demands they solely cover approved content.

“The dormant force perpetually exists asleep until some venality turns extremely harmful, some action so offensive toward public welfare, specific cruelty so loud, that he is compelled except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

At the same time, the big questions remain: is the US able to return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its commitment to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is true; that everything could be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we have to attempt, by any means available.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that’s about urging journalists to live up, more completely, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to defend voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to attempt to persevere.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The contact I encounter with students with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and practical, {always