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Twelve months back, the situation was utterly distinct. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could admit the nation's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – yet they continued to identify it as America. A democratic nation. A country where legal governance carried weight. A state headed by a honorable and decent official, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.

These days, in late October 2025, countless Americans scarcely know the land we reside in. Persons alleged as undocumented migrants are detained and pushed into vehicles, at times blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish ballroom. The leader is targeting his opponents or supposed enemies and requesting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched into American cities under fabricated reasons. The military command, renamed the War Department, has practically liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

Each day begins to new horrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we know that Trump was properly voted in. Despite his highly troubling initial presidency and following the cautions that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – following the leader directly stated openly he would rule as a tyrant solely at the start – enough Americans selected him instead of the other candidate.

While alarming as today's circumstances is, it's more daunting to recognize that we’re only nine months under this leadership. What will an additional three years of this downfall leave us? And if that period becomes a more extended duration, since there is no one to restrain this president from deciding that another term is required, perhaps for national security reasons?

Certainly, all is not lost. There are legislative votes the coming year that may establish an alternate governmental control, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. We have elected officials who are striving to apply some accountability, like Democratic congressmen currently launching an investigation regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.

And a leadership election three years from now could initiate us down the road toward restoration precisely as the prior selection put us on this unfortunate course.

There are millions of Americans protesting in public spaces across municipalities, as they did last weekend at democracy demonstrations.

A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid the sixties activism or throughout the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

The author states he recognizes the signs of that revival and sees it happening currently. As support, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, multi-faction opposition to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to accept the defense department’s demands they solely cover approved content.

“The slumbering entity perpetually exists inactive till some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that it is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may be validated.

Meanwhile, the crucial issues endure: will the nation regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its commitment to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind suggests that the latter is true; that everything could be lost. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, advises me that we must try, by any means possible.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that means pushing media professionals to live up, more fully, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For some people, it may be participating in political races, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to protect ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. The only option is to strive to persevere.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I encounter with students with aspiring reporters, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always