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Twelve months back, the landscape was completely different. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could recognize the country's serious imperfections – its unfairness and inequality – yet they could still perceive it as America. A free society. A country where legal governance held significance. A nation led by a respectable and upright leader, despite his advanced age and declining health.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the land we live in. Individuals suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are detained and shoved into vans, at times denied due process. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish dance hall. The president is harassing his adversaries or perceived antagonists and demanding the justice department hand over a huge total of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are being sent across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, relabeled the War Department, has effectively rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, law firms, media outlets are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are regarded as aristocracy.

“The US, just months before its 250^th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” a noted author, wrote this past summer. “In the end, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in America.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we are, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

Nevertheless, it is known that the leader was duly elected. Following his highly troubling first term and following the warnings associated with the awareness of the conservative plan – despite the leader directly declared plainly he planned to act as an autocrat just on day one – enough Americans chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as today's circumstances is, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been nine months into this presidential term. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration position us? And if that period transforms into something even longer, because there is no one to restrain this leader from determining that additional tenure is required, possibly for security concerns?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be legislative votes in 2026 that may bring a different governmental control, if Democrats regain the Senate or House of Congress. There are government representatives who are attempting to impose a degree of oversight, such as representatives currently starting a probe regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate our journey to recovery just as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.

We see numerous residents demonstrating in urban areas of their cities, as they did recently in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the US is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in that decade or throughout the Vietnam war protests or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he recognizes the signs of that awakening and observes it occurring currently. For proof, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the extensive, multi-faction opposition regarding a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they report only what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists dormant until certain corruption turns extremely harmful, some action so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so noisy, that it is compelled except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll be validated.

In the meantime, the major inquiries persist: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its commitment to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is correct; that everything might be lost. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we must try, by any means possible.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that’s about pushing media professionals to live up, more thoroughly, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it may be participating in congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or in several years? The reality is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The contact I experience in the classroom with young journalists, who are both visionary and practical, {always