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One year ago, the situation was utterly separate. Prior to the national election, reflective residents could admit America's serious imperfections – its injustices and inequality – yet they could still identify it as the United States. A democracy. A place where the rule of law held significance. A country led by a honorable and decent official, despite his older age and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the nation we live in. Persons alleged as unauthorized foreigners are detained and pushed into vans, occasionally denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for an obscene dance hall. The president is targeting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities surrender a massive sum of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, relabeled the Department of War, has effectively rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching nearly $1tn of taxpayer money. Colleges, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are treated like nobility.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the limit toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” an American historian, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it transpired in America.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone we are, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

Nevertheless, we know that the leader was duly elected. Following his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the alerts associated with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after the leader directly stated openly he planned to be a dictator just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him rather than the other candidate.

Frightening as the present situation are, it's more daunting to recognize that we have only been several months under this leadership. How will another 36 months of this downfall leave us? And suppose the three years becomes something even longer, since there is no one to limit this ruler from determining that another term is essential, maybe for security concerns?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be legislative votes the coming year which might create a new balance of power, in case Democrats regain one or both houses of Congress. We have elected officials who are trying to impose some accountability, such as lawmakers that are launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a national vote in 2028 could initiate us down the road to recovery precisely as last year’s election placed us on this regrettable path.

There are numerous residents demonstrating in the streets throughout communities, similar to recent in the past days in the No Kings rallies.

Robert Reich, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the sixties activism or throughout the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the listing ship eventually was righted.

He claims he recognizes the signs of that resurgence and observes it occurring currently. As evidence, he cites the recent massive protests, the broad, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous defiance by media to sign the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays asleep till specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that it has no choice but to awaken.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the big questions remain: can America return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its adherence to the rule of law?

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

My negative thoughts indicates that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be gone. My positive feelings, though, advises me that we have to attempt, by any means available.

For me, as an observer of the press, that means encouraging reporters to live up, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For others, it may be working on election efforts, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we existed in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The truth is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to strive to persevere.

What Offers Me Hope Now

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