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One year ago, the situation was completely distinct. Prior to the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could acknowledge the nation's serious imperfections – its inequities and imbalance – yet they still could see it as the United States. A democracy. A land where legal governance meant something. A nation headed by a respectable and ethical official, notwithstanding his advanced age and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, many of us hardly identify the land we inhabit. People suspected of being illegal immigrants are collected and forced into vans, at times blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the White House – is being destroyed for an obscene event space. Donald Trump is targeting his adversaries or perceived antagonists and demanding legal authorities hand over a huge total of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are being sent to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, renamed the Department of War, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends potentially totaling close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Universities, law firms, media outlets are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like nobility.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the edge toward dictatorship and extremism,” a noted author, wrote this past summer. “In the end, swifter than I thought feasible, it did happen here.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. And it is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we are, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we know that the leader was properly voted in. Despite his highly troubling first term and despite the cautions associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the president personally stated openly he would be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters selected him rather than Kamala Harris.

Frightening as today's circumstances may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. How will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And if that period becomes something even longer, because there is nobody to stop this leader from opting that a third term is necessary, possibly for national security reasons?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections next year that may establish an alternate governmental control, should Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. We have government representatives who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers who are launching an investigation into the attempted money grab from the justice department.

And a national vote three years from now could initiate our journey to recovery precisely as the previous vote set us on this unfortunate course.

There exist millions of Americans protesting in the streets of their cities, as they did last weekend at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of the nation is stirring”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or throughout anti-war demonstrations or during the seventies crisis.

On those occasions, the listing ship finally returned to balance.

The author states he understands the indicators of that revival and sees it happening now. As support, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to agree to government requirements they report only approved content.

“The sleeping giant perpetually exists dormant before some venality becomes so noxious, some action so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so noisy, that the giant is compelled other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

In the meantime, the major inquiries persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its commitment to constitutional order?

Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My pessimistic brain indicates that the second option is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, however, advises me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways we can.

For me, as an observer of the press, that means urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to defend electoral access.

Under twelve months back, we lived in a very different place. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. The only option is try to persevere.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The contact I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always