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In late October 2024, the landscape was completely separate. Ahead of the American presidential vote, considerate residents could recognize America's significant faults – its unfairness and imbalance – but they could still identify it as America. A free society. A place where constitutional order meant something. A country headed by a honorable and upright leader, despite his older age and increasing frailty.

Currently, as October 2025 ends, many of us hardly identify the country we reside in. Individuals believed to be unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into vans, at times blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the White House – is being torn down for a grotesque event space. The leader is targeting his opponents or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of public funds. Uniformed troops are deployed into American cities on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has effectively liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are buckling under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like members of the royal family.

“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the brink into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Ultimately, swifter than I imagined possible, it did happen in America.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how severely declined we have become, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.

However, we know that the leader was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing first term and even after the warnings that came with the understanding of the conservative plan – despite Trump himself stated openly he would be a dictator solely at the start – enough Americans selected him over the other candidate.

While alarming as the current reality is, it's more frightening to realize that we are just several months into this presidential term. What will another 36 months of this deterioration find us? And if that period becomes a more extended duration, since there is nobody to restrain this leader from opting that a third term is essential, perhaps for national security reasons?

Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be midterm elections next year that may create a new balance of power, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. We have elected officials who are striving to exert certain responsibility, like representatives currently starting a probe concerning the try to money grab from legal authorities.

And a presidential election three years from now could initiate us down the road toward restoration exactly as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.

We see numerous residents protesting in public spaces of their cities, similar to recent last weekend in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is stirring”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or amid the Vietnam war protests or throughout the seventies crisis.

During those times, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

He claims he knows the signals of that awakening and notices it unfolding currently. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the broad, cross-party resistance regarding a broadcaster's firing and the largely united rejection by reporters to agree to military mandates they only publish authorized information.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays dormant till certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive of societal benefit, some brutality so loud, that it is compelled other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may be validated.

At the same time, the big questions remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it reclaim its position globally and its adherence to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind indicates that the latter is correct; that everything could be lost. My optimistic spirit, nevertheless, advises me that we must try, by any means possible.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that’s about urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Optimism Currently

The contact I encounter with students with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and practical, {always