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Twelve months back, the environment was utterly separate. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful residents could recognize America's deep flaws – its unfairness and disparity – however they still could identify it as the United States. A free society. A country where constitutional order held significance. A nation guided by a dignified and upright official, despite his advanced age and declining health.

Currently, this autumn, countless Americans barely recognize the country we live in. People alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into vehicles, occasionally refused legal rights. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is being torn down to build a lavish dance hall. The president is targeting his opponents or perceived antagonists and insisting legal authorities transfer an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Uniformed troops are dispatched into American cities on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses potentially totaling nearly $1tn of taxpayer money. Institutions, law firms, journalism organizations are buckling under the president’s threats, and billionaires are handled as aristocracy.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the edge into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, faster than I believed likely, it did happen here.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how deeply lost our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

Nevertheless, we know that the president was properly voted in. Following his deeply disturbing first term and even after the alerts that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – following the president personally said publicly he would rule as a tyrant only on the first day – a majority of citizens elected him rather than his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality are, it's more daunting to realize that we have only been several months under this leadership. Where will an additional three years of this downfall find us? And if that period becomes an prolonged era, as there is nobody to stop this president from determining that another term is essential, maybe for security concerns?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. We will have congressional elections in 2026 that may establish an alternate political equilibrium, should Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. There are elected officials who are striving to exert some accountability, such as lawmakers currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could begin us down the road toward restoration exactly as the prior selection placed us on this unfortunate course.

We see countless citizens protesting in the streets across municipalities, like they performed in the past days during anti-authority protests.

A former official, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or during the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he recognizes the signs of that awakening and observes it occurring currently. As support, he points to the widespread marches, the extensive, multi-faction opposition against a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to accept government requirements they report only approved content.

“The sleeping giant perpetually exists dormant till certain corruption grows too toxic, a particular deed so contemptuous of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that it has no choice except to rise.”

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

In the meantime, the big questions persist: can America ever recover? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its devotion to legal principles?

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

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is accurate; that all may indeed be gone. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods possible.

For me, as an observer of the press, that’s about pushing media professionals to commit, more completely, to their mission of holding power to account. For some people, it could mean engaging with political races, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. In the future? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is try to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

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