The Heartbreaking Shift a Single Year Has Made in the US
In late October 2024, the landscape was completely distinct. Ahead of the national election, reflective residents could acknowledge America's deep flaws – its unfairness and imbalance – however they continued to perceive it as the US. A free society. A place where legal governance meant something. A nation guided by a honorable and upright leader, even with his elderly years and increasing frailty.
These days, in late October 2025, numerous citizens scarcely know the country we live in. People alleged as illegal immigrants are rounded up and forced into vehicles, sometimes denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is undergoing demolition for an obscene dance hall. Donald Trump is targeting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and requesting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched to US urban areas under fabricated reasons. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like members of the royal family.
“America, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the brink toward dictatorship and fascism,” an American historian, commented recently. “In the end, swifter than I imagined possible, it did happen in this country.”
Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.
However, we know that the president was legitimately chosen. Even after his profoundly alarming first term and despite the alerts linked to the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly declared plainly he planned to rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens selected him over his Democratic opponent.
While alarming as the current reality are, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been three-quarters of a year under this leadership. How will three more years of this deterioration leave us? And if that period turns into something even longer, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from deciding that another term is required, perhaps for national security reasons?
Granted, there is still hope. There will be midterm elections the coming year that could create a new governmental control, should Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. There are government representatives who are trying to exert certain responsibility, for example representatives currently launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a leadership election three years from now could initiate our journey to healing just as last year’s election put us on this disappointing trajectory.
There exist millions of Americans protesting in urban areas across municipalities, as they did last weekend during anti-authority protests.
Robert Reich, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the US is rising”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.
On those occasions, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.
The author states he understands the signs of that resurgence and notices it unfolding at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign the defense department’s demands they report only authorized information.
“The sleeping giant consistently stays dormant till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so offensive of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that it is forced but to awaken.”
It's a positive outlook, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.
At the same time, the big questions endure: will the nation ever recover? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its commitment to the rule of law?
Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My cynical mind tells me that the final scenario is true; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, though, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods available.
In my case, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to live up, more thoroughly, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For some people, it could mean participating in election efforts, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to defend electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we are uncertain. The only option is try to continue fighting.
What Offers Me Optimism Currently
The contact I experience in the classroom with young journalists, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always
