A Tragic Shift Just One Year Has Caused in the United States
In late October 2024, the environment was entirely separate. Prior to the American presidential vote, considerate Americans could recognize the nation's deep flaws – its unfairness and imbalance – but they continued to identify it as the United States. A free society. A place where the rule of law held significance. A state headed by a respectable and upright leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and increasing frailty.
Currently, this autumn, numerous citizens barely recognize the country we inhabit. Individuals believed to be illegal immigrants are rounded up and pushed into vehicles, occasionally denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being torn down for an obscene ballroom. The president is persecuting his political rivals or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are being sent across metropolitan centers with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, renamed the Defense Ministry, has effectively freed itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of what could amount to almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Universities, law firms, media outlets are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has crossed the limit into authoritarianism and fascism,” an American historian, wrote recently. “In the end, swifter than I believed likely, it did happen in this country.”
Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and the speed at which it unfolded.
Nevertheless, we understand that the president was legitimately chosen. Following his highly troubling previous administration and even after the warnings that came with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – despite Trump himself stated openly he would act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens selected him instead of his Democratic opponent.
While alarming as the present situation are, it's more frightening to understand that we’re only several months under this leadership. Where will another 36 months of this decline find us? And if that period transforms into an prolonged era, since there is nobody to limit this president from determining that a third term is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?
Granted, not everything is hopeless. We will have legislative votes in 2026 that may establish an alternate governmental control, should Democrats recapture the Senate or House of Congress. There exist government representatives who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, such as representatives currently initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to money grab from the justice department.
And a leadership election in the next cycle could initiate our journey toward restoration precisely as the previous vote placed us on this unfortunate course.
There are numerous residents protesting in public spaces of their cities, similar to recent in the past days in the No Kings rallies.
Robert Reich, commented this week that “the slumbering force of America is stirring”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid the sixties activism or throughout the Watergate scandal.
During those times, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.
Reich says he recognizes the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening currently. As support, he references the recent massive protests, the widespread, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to sign government requirements they only publish authorized information.
“The dormant force consistently stays dormant till certain corruption grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, certain violence so disruptive, that he has no choice except to rise.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may prove to be right.
Meanwhile, the crucial issues persist: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its standing internationally and its commitment to the rule of law?
Or should we recognize that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My negative thoughts indicates that the final scenario is accurate; that everything might be lost. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways possible.
For me, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to adhere, more completely, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For others, it could mean engaging with congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to safeguard voting rights.
Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to not give up.
What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently
The contact I encounter in the classroom with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always
