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In late October 2024, the landscape was entirely different. Prior to the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could admit the nation's deep flaws – its inequities and disparity – yet they could still see it as the United States. A democracy. A place where the rule of law carried weight. A state led by a dignified and upright official, despite his advanced age and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us scarcely know the land we inhabit. Persons suspected of being undocumented migrants are detained and pushed into vehicles, at times blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed to build a lavish event space. The president is targeting his political rivals or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors transfer an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The military command, renamed the War Department, has practically liberated itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of what could amount to almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.

“The United States, just months before its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the brink toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, more quickly than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. It is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Nevertheless, it is known that the president was properly voted in. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the alerts linked to the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after the president personally stated openly he intended to be a dictator just on day one – enough Americans elected him rather than Kamala Harris.

Frightening as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to recognize that we’re only nine months under this leadership. What will an additional three years of this decline leave us? And if that period becomes something even longer, because there is no one to limit this president from deciding that a third term is necessary, perhaps for defense purposes?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections next year that may bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert some accountability, for example lawmakers currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote in 2028 could start us down the road to healing exactly as last year’s election set us on this unfortunate course.

There are countless citizens demonstrating in public spaces of their cities, as they did last weekend during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or throughout the Vietnam war protests or in the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he recognizes the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As evidence, he references the widespread marches, the widespread, cross-party resistance against a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to sign military mandates they only publish approved content.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive till specific greed becomes so noxious, some action so offensive toward public welfare, some brutality so noisy, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may turn out correct.

Meanwhile, the big questions endure: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its position in the world and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain indicates that the final scenario is accurate; that everything could be lost. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we need to strive, in whatever ways available.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that means encouraging reporters to adhere, more completely, to their duty of holding power to account. For different individuals, it might involve participating in political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. The only option is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I have in the classroom with young journalists, who are equally visionary and grounded, {always