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In late October 2024, the environment was entirely different. Ahead of the national election, considerate residents could acknowledge the country's significant faults – its injustices and imbalance – however they continued to perceive it as America. A democracy. A land where legal governance carried weight. A state guided by a honorable and upright leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and increasing frailty.

Currently, in late October 2025, many of us hardly identify the nation we reside in. People suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and shoved into transport, occasionally refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. The president is harassing his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities hand over a huge total of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, renamed the Defense Ministry, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight while it uses what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like aristocracy.

“The US, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, wrote in August. “Ultimately, faster than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

However, we understand that the president was duly elected. Even after his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the warnings associated with the knowledge of Project 2025 – following the leader directly said publicly he would be a dictator solely at the start – a majority of citizens elected him instead of Kamala Harris.

As terrifying as today's circumstances is, it's more frightening to realize that we have only been three-quarters of a year under this leadership. How will another 36 months of this decline find us? And what if the three years becomes a more extended duration, because there is nobody to stop this president from determining that a third term is necessary, perhaps for national security reasons?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. We will have midterm elections next year that could bring a different governmental control, should Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. We have government representatives who are attempting to exert certain responsibility, such as lawmakers that are starting a probe regarding the effort to money grab from the justice department.

And a presidential election three years from now could initiate us down the road to healing exactly as last year’s election set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist countless citizens marching in urban areas across municipalities, similar to recent in the past days in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the US is stirring”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or amid the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.

During those times, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

He claims he knows the signs of that awakening and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he references the recent massive protests, the extensive, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united defiance by media to agree to the defense department’s demands they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists dormant till specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so offensive of the common good, some brutality so noisy, that he is compelled other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will be validated.

Meanwhile, the big questions remain: can America regain its footing? Can it retrieve its status internationally and its devotion to legal principles?

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

My cynical mind tells me that the final scenario is accurate; that all may indeed be finished. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we have to attempt, through all methods we can.

Personally, as a media critic, that involves urging journalists to live up, more completely, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve engaging with election efforts, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to defend ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we lived in a very different place. A year from now? Or after another term? The reality is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is try to not give up.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The interaction I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, who are both idealistic and realistic, {always