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In late October 2024, the situation was utterly different. Prior to the American presidential vote, reflective citizens could admit America's serious imperfections – its injustices and disparity – however they could still identify it as America. A free society. A land where constitutional order carried weight. A state led by a honorable and decent official, despite his older age and growing weakness.

These days, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans scarcely know the land we inhabit. Persons alleged as undocumented migrants are collected and forced into transport, at times refused legal rights. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being torn down to build a lavish ballroom. The president is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities transfer a huge total of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are being sent into American cities under fabricated reasons. The defense headquarters, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has effectively rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, journalism organizations are submitting from leader's menaces, and billionaires are handled as aristocracy.

“The US, shortly prior to its quarter-millennium anniversary as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it occurred in America.”

One awakes to new horrors. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and how quickly it unfolded.

However, we understand that the leader was duly elected. Despite his highly troubling first term and even after the alerts linked to the awareness of the conservative plan – following the leader directly said publicly he would be a dictator just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the present situation may be, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been three-quarters of a year into this administration. What will three more years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose the three years becomes something even longer, because there is nobody to limit this president from opting that another term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. We will have legislative votes the coming year that could create a new balance of power, should Democrats recapture one or both houses of Congress. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert some accountability, such as lawmakers who are launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation by federal prosecutors.

And a national vote three years from now could begin our journey toward restoration exactly as the prior selection placed us on this regrettable path.

There exist countless citizens protesting in public spaces across municipalities, as they did in the past days in the No Kings rallies.

A former official, wrote recently that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is awakening”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or during the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the signals of that revival and observes it occurring at present. As evidence, he points to the widespread marches, the widespread, multi-faction opposition against a personality's dismissal and the almost universal rejection by reporters to agree to military mandates they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity always remains inactive till certain corruption grows too toxic, an specific act so offensive of societal benefit, some brutality so disruptive, that it is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

At the same time, the crucial issues persist: can America return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its position internationally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My cynical mind suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything could be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we have to attempt, through all methods we can.

In my case, as a media critic, that means urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it may be working on political races, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to safeguard ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or three years from now? The truth is, we cannot predict. The only option is try to not give up.

What Offers Me Optimism Currently

The contact I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, who are both visionary and grounded, {always