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One year ago, the environment was utterly different. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could recognize the country's deep flaws – its injustices and imbalance – but they still could identify it as the US. A democratic nation. A land where the rule of law held significance. A country led by a honorable and decent leader, despite his advanced age and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, countless Americans barely recognize the country we inhabit. Individuals believed to be unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and shoved into transport, sometimes denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is being destroyed to build a lavish ballroom. The president is persecuting his adversaries or supposed enemies and insisting the justice department transfer a massive sum of public funds. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Colleges, law firms, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.

“America, just months before its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and extremism,” Garrett Graff, wrote in August. “In the end, swifter than I imagined possible, it did happen here.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we have become, and how quickly it unfolded.

However, it is known that Trump was legitimately chosen. Despite his deeply disturbing first term and following the cautions associated with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – even after the leader directly stated openly he planned to be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans elected him over Kamala Harris.

Frightening as the present situation is, it’s even scarier to realize that we have only been several months into this administration. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration position us? And suppose that timeframe transforms into something even longer, because there is no one to restrain this ruler from opting that additional tenure is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?

Certainly, there is still hope. There are legislative votes in 2026 which might establish an alternate political equilibrium, if Democrats retake one or both houses of Congress. There are elected officials who are attempting to impose some accountability, for example lawmakers currently launching an investigation into the attempted money grab from the justice department.

And a national vote three years from now could initiate the path toward restoration precisely as the prior selection set us on this regrettable path.

There exist countless citizens marching in urban areas throughout communities, similar to recent recently during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the US is stirring”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or throughout the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

The author states he knows the signals of that awakening and notices it unfolding currently. As support, he references the widespread marches, the broad, bipartisan pushback to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united defiance by media to sign government requirements they report only authorized information.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays asleep before specific greed grows too toxic, some action so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so disruptive, that he has no choice but to awaken.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

In the meantime, the big questions persist: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its status internationally and its commitment to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind indicates that the final scenario is true; that all may indeed be gone. My positive feelings, however, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways we can.

In my case, as a media critic, that involves encouraging reporters to live up, more completely, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it may be working on congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to safeguard ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we existed in a very different place. A year from now? Or in several years? The truth is, we are uncertain. All we can do is to strive to continue fighting.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I experience with students with young journalists, who are both hopeful and grounded, {always