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In late October 2024, the situation was completely distinct. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge America's deep flaws – its inequities and disparity – but they continued to identify it as the US. A democracy. A place where the rule of law carried weight. A state led by a honorable and upright official, even with his older age and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, countless Americans hardly identify the nation we inhabit. People suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into transport, sometimes denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is being destroyed for a grotesque dance hall. The president is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are dispatched across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – rid itself of regular press examination as it spends potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are handled as aristocracy.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Finally, faster than I imagined possible, it occurred in this country.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it's hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how severely declined our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

Yet, we understand that Trump was legitimately chosen. Even after his highly troubling first term and despite the cautions that came with the knowledge of Project 2025 – even after Trump himself said publicly he planned to rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the current reality may be, it's more daunting to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration find us? And suppose that period turns into something even longer, because there is no one to restrain this leader from determining that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?

Admittedly, all is not lost. There are midterm elections the coming year that could bring a different governmental control, if Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. There are government representatives who are trying to impose certain responsibility, such as representatives who are launching an investigation into the attempted money grab from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate our journey toward restoration just as last year’s election put us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are millions of Americans marching in the streets across municipalities, like they performed recently at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of America is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during the Vietnam war protests or throughout the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

He claims he understands the signs of that awakening and notices it unfolding currently. As evidence, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition to a television host's removal and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to the defense department’s demands they report only approved content.

“The dormant force always remains dormant until specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that he is forced other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

Meanwhile, the big questions persist: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its position internationally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the historical project worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain suggests that the second option is accurate; that all may indeed be finished. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, advises me that we need to strive, through all methods we can.

In my case, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve engaging with political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to defend electoral access.

Less than a year ago, we were in a very different place. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Encouragement Today

The contact I experience in the classroom with young journalists, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always