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In late October 2024, the situation was completely separate. Prior to the national election, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge the nation's serious imperfections – its unfairness and inequality – but they continued to identify it as the US. A democratic nation. A country where legal governance held significance. A nation guided by a honorable and ethical official, even with his older age and growing weakness.

Currently, in late October 2025, many of us scarcely know the nation we live in. People believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and shoved into vehicles, sometimes refused legal rights. The eastern section of the White House – is undergoing demolition for an obscene ballroom. Donald Trump is persecuting his political rivals or alleged foes and insisting the justice department surrender a huge total of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The military command, rebranded the War Department, has practically rid itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“America, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the edge toward dictatorship and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “In the end, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in this country.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we know that the president was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming previous administration and following the warnings that came with the knowledge of the conservative plan – even after Trump himself declared plainly he planned to rule as a tyrant only on the first day – a majority of citizens chose him over the other candidate.

While alarming as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just nine months under this leadership. What will three more years of this decline position us? And suppose that timeframe becomes an prolonged era, since there is nobody to restrain this ruler from opting that a third term is essential, maybe for defense purposes?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. We will have congressional elections next year that could bring a different governmental control, should Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. There exist public servants who are trying to impose certain responsibility, such as representatives that are starting a probe into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could start the path to recovery just as the prior selection put us on this regrettable path.

We see numerous residents marching in the streets across municipalities, as they did last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is stirring”, just as it did following the Red Scare during the fifties or during anti-war demonstrations or in the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that resurgence and sees it happening now. As evidence, he references the recent massive protests, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous defiance by media to sign military mandates they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity always remains dormant till some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so noisy, that it has no choice but to awaken.”

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

In the meantime, the big questions remain: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its status globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My cynical mind tells me that the second option is accurate; that all may indeed be lost. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods possible.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that means encouraging reporters to adhere, more fully, to their mission of holding power to account. For others, it may be participating in political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to protect electoral access.

Under twelve months back, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or in several years? The truth is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is try to persevere.

What Provides Me Hope Now

The interaction I encounter with students with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always