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In late October 2024, the environment was utterly separate. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could acknowledge America's serious imperfections – its inequities and imbalance – yet they continued to identify it as the US. A democratic nation. A place where the rule of law carried weight. A country guided by a respectable and decent official, notwithstanding his older age and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the country we live in. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are detained and pushed into vehicles, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the White House – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. The leader is targeting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors hand over an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are deployed into American cities on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has effectively freed itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Colleges, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.

“America, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit into authoritarianism and extremism,” a noted author, wrote this past summer. “Finally, faster than I imagined possible, it did happen in this country.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. It is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

Nevertheless, it is known that the president was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and even after the alerts that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – even after Trump himself said publicly he intended to be a dictator just on day one – enough Americans chose him instead of his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the current reality are, it's more daunting to realize that we are just several months into this presidential term. How will another 36 months of this downfall position us? And what if that timeframe turns into an prolonged era, because there is not anyone to stop this leader from deciding that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for national security reasons?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be legislative votes next year that could create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats retake the Senate or House of the legislature. There are elected officials who are trying to apply a degree of oversight, for example representatives currently launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a national vote three years from now could start us down the road toward restoration just as last year’s election set us on this regrettable path.

There exist millions of Americans demonstrating in the streets across municipalities, like they performed recently during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is rising”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or amid the sixties activism or in the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel eventually was righted.

The author states he knows the signals of that awakening and sees it happening currently. For proof, he points to the recent massive protests, the broad, cross-party resistance to a television host's removal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to accept military mandates they solely cover authorized information.

“The slumbering entity consistently stays inactive before some venality becomes so noxious, some action so disrespectful toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that he is forced other than to stir.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

In the meantime, the big questions remain: can America return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its standing 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 – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is true; that everything could be finished. My hopeful heart, however, tells me that we must try, by any means possible.

For me, as a media critic, that’s about urging journalists to commit, more completely, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For others, it could mean working on election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we are uncertain. Our sole course is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The contact I encounter in the classroom with new media professionals, who are both idealistic and realistic, {always