The Tragic Change Just One Year Has Caused in the United States
One year ago, the landscape was entirely separate. Prior to the US presidential election, considerate citizens could admit the country's significant faults – its inequities and imbalance – however they still could see it as America. A free society. A land where constitutional order carried weight. A state led by a dignified and upright official, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.
These days, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the nation we live in. Individuals believed to be illegal immigrants are collected and forced into vehicles, occasionally refused legal rights. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is being torn down to build a lavish event space. The leader is persecuting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has effectively liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as members of the royal family.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the brink toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I thought feasible, it occurred in this country.”
Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it's hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone our nation is, and how quickly it unfolded.
Nevertheless, it is known that the president was duly elected. Following his highly troubling previous administration and despite the warnings that came with the knowledge of the conservative plan – despite the leader directly stated openly he planned to be a dictator just on day one – a majority of citizens chose him rather than the other candidate.
Frightening as today's circumstances are, it's more daunting to understand that we’re only several months under this leadership. How will three more years of this decline position us? And if that timeframe transforms into something even longer, since there is nobody to restrain this leader from determining that another term is necessary, maybe for national security reasons?
Admittedly, there is still hope. We will have midterm elections in 2026 that could establish an alternate governmental control, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. There are government representatives who are striving to impose a degree of oversight, such as Democratic congressmen who are launching an investigation into the attempted cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.
And a leadership election three years from now could initiate the path toward restoration precisely as last year’s election put us on this unfortunate course.
There are numerous residents demonstrating in the streets across municipalities, like they performed in the past days during anti-authority protests.
An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is stirring”, similar to past post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or in the seventies crisis.
In those instances, the listing ship eventually was righted.
He claims he understands the signals of that revival and observes it occurring at present. For proof, he references the recent massive protests, the widespread, multi-faction opposition regarding a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to accept the defense department’s demands they solely cover what is sanctioned.
“The sleeping giant always remains asleep till some venality grows too toxic, some action so disrespectful of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that it is compelled but to awaken.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.
In the meantime, the major inquiries endure: can America ever recover? Can it reclaim its position globally and its devotion to the rule of law?
Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My cynical mind indicates that the second option is true; that all may indeed be gone. My positive feelings, though, advises me that we have to attempt, by any means available.
Personally, as a media critic, that means urging journalists to commit, more fully, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For some people, it may be participating in political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to defend electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we existed in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The truth is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to continue fighting.
What Offers Me Optimism Currently
The contact I experience with students with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always
