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Twelve months back, the situation was completely different. Before the national election, thoughtful Americans could acknowledge the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and disparity – however they still could see it as the United States. A democracy. A land where constitutional order held significance. A country headed by a respectable and decent public servant, notwithstanding his older age and growing weakness.

These days, as October 2025 ends, countless Americans hardly identify the country we inhabit. Individuals alleged as illegal immigrants are rounded up and pushed into vehicles, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the White House – is being torn down for a grotesque event space. The president is harassing his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting the justice department surrender a massive sum of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are dispatched across metropolitan centers under fabricated reasons. The military command, rebranded the Department of War, has effectively rid itself of regular press examination while it uses what could amount to close to a trillion USD from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, media outlets are buckling under the president’s threats, and wealthy elites are treated like nobility.

“The United States, just months before its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the edge into autocracy and totalitarianism,” an American historian, wrote recently. “In the end, more quickly than I believed likely, it occurred in America.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone our nation is, and the speed at which it occurred.

However, we know that Trump was duly elected. Following his deeply disturbing first term and following the cautions that came with the understanding of Project 2025 – despite the president personally stated openly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him over the other candidate.

Frightening as today's circumstances are, it's more frightening to realize that we have only been several months into this administration. How will an additional three years of this downfall leave us? And what if the three years transforms into something even longer, since there is nobody to stop this president from deciding that another term is necessary, maybe for defense purposes?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. We will have midterm elections the coming year that could create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. There exist elected officials who are trying to exert some accountability, like lawmakers currently launching an investigation into the attempted fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could start the path toward restoration exactly as last year’s election set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are countless citizens demonstrating in urban areas across municipalities, as they did last weekend during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is rising”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or throughout anti-war demonstrations or during the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he knows the indicators of that awakening and notices it unfolding now. As evidence, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance against a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish authorized information.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep till some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so offensive of societal benefit, specific cruelty so disruptive, that the giant is compelled but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

In the meantime, the crucial issues remain: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its position globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My negative thoughts indicates that the final scenario is true; that everything could be gone. My hopeful heart, though, advises me that we must try, by any means we can.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that involves encouraging reporters to adhere, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For different individuals, it could mean participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is to attempt to persevere.

What’s Giving Me Hope Now

The contact I experience during teaching with young journalists, who are equally visionary and realistic, {always