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One year ago, the environment was completely different. Before the US presidential election, thoughtful residents could admit the country's deep flaws – its injustices and imbalance – yet they could still identify it as the United States. A free society. A country where the rule of law meant something. A country guided by a respectable and decent official, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the land we inhabit. Individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and shoved into transport, sometimes refused legal rights. The left side of the White House – is being torn down for an obscene ballroom. The leader is targeting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting the justice department surrender a massive sum of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are deployed across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Department of War, has practically rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Colleges, legal practices, journalism organizations are yielding under the president’s threats, and billionaires are regarded as aristocracy.

“America, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into authoritarianism and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented this past summer. “In the end, faster than I thought feasible, it transpired in America.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and how quickly it has happened.

Nevertheless, we understand that the president was duly elected. Despite his highly troubling initial presidency and following the warnings that came with the knowledge of Project 2025 – following the leader directly stated openly he planned to rule as a tyrant only on the first day – enough Americans selected him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality are, it’s even scarier to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. Where will another 36 months of this downfall find us? And what if that period transforms into a more extended duration, since there is nobody to stop this leader from opting that additional tenure is required, perhaps for defense purposes?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections the coming year that could bring a different balance of power, should Democrats retake the Senate or House of Congress. We have government representatives who are striving to impose certain responsibility, for example representatives currently starting a probe into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate the path toward restoration precisely as the prior selection put us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are millions of Americans demonstrating in the streets across municipalities, like they performed recently during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the slumbering force of the nation is stirring”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the Vietnam war protests or during the seventies crisis.

During those times, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.

The author states he knows the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring currently. As evidence, he points to the widespread marches, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a television host's removal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to agree to the defense department’s demands they report only approved content.

“The dormant force always remains inactive until some venality turns extremely harmful, some action so contemptuous of the common good, some brutality so disruptive, that it is forced but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

In the meantime, the major inquiries persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My negative thoughts suggests that the second option is true; that all may indeed be finished. My optimistic spirit, though, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods available.

Personally, as a media critic, that means pushing media professionals to commit, more completely, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it may be engaging with congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we were in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I have with students with new media professionals, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always