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In late October 2024, the environment was completely separate. Ahead of the national election, thoughtful citizens could recognize the country's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – but they could still perceive it as the United States. A free society. A country where constitutional order carried weight. A state guided by a honorable and decent public servant, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, many of us barely recognize the land we inhabit. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and pushed into vehicles, sometimes denied due process. The left side of the presidential residence – is being torn down for an obscene dance hall. The leader is persecuting his opponents or supposed enemies and requesting federal prosecutors surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Department of War, has practically rid itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of possibly reaching close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Colleges, legal practices, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are handled as aristocracy.

“The United States, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the globe's top democratic nation, has tipped over the edge toward dictatorship and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it's hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the speed at which it unfolded.

Nevertheless, it is known that the president was duly elected. Following his highly troubling previous administration and despite the cautions linked to the awareness of Project 2025 – even after the president personally said publicly he would rule as a tyrant only on the first day – sufficient voters elected him rather than the other candidate.

Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to understand that we’re only nine months into this presidential term. What will another 36 months of this downfall leave us? And what if that period becomes a more extended duration, as there is no one to limit this president from deciding that another term is necessary, perhaps for national security reasons?

Admittedly, all is not lost. There will be congressional elections the coming year that could establish an alternate political equilibrium, if Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. We have government representatives who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers that are starting a probe into the attempted cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a leadership election in the next cycle could begin our journey to recovery just as last year’s election placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

We see millions of Americans protesting in the streets throughout communities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the US is stirring”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or during the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to agree to government requirements they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep before certain corruption turns extremely harmful, some action so offensive of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that it has no choice except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the major inquiries persist: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind indicates that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be finished. My hopeful heart, though, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways we can.

Personally, working in journalism analysis, that means urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For different individuals, it may be working on election efforts, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The reality is, we cannot predict. The only option is to strive to continue fighting.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The engagement I have with students with young journalists, who are equally visionary and practical, {always