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In late October 2024, the landscape was completely different. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could admit the nation's deep flaws – its inequities and disparity – yet they still could perceive it as America. A democratic nation. A place where constitutional order held significance. A country led by a honorable and ethical official, notwithstanding his elderly years and increasing frailty.

Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens hardly identify the land we inhabit. Individuals suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and shoved into transport, at times denied due process. The left side of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque ballroom. The president is targeting his opponents or perceived antagonists and requesting the justice department hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are dispatched to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has effectively liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Institutions, legal practices, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and rich magnates are handled as members of the royal family.

“The United States, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into autocracy and fascism,” an American historian, stated recently. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it transpired here.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how severely declined we are, and the speed at which it occurred.

However, it is known that the president was duly elected. Despite his highly troubling initial presidency and even after the warnings linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following the president personally declared plainly he intended to be a dictator only on the first day – sufficient voters chose him rather than Kamala Harris.

As terrifying as the current reality are, it's more frightening to realize that we are just several months into this administration. Where will an additional three years of this deterioration position us? And if that timeframe becomes something even longer, since there is no one to restrain this leader from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, perhaps for security concerns?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be legislative votes next year which might create a new governmental control, if Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. There are government representatives who are attempting to exert a degree of oversight, for example Democratic congressmen who are launching an investigation regarding the effort to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election three years from now could initiate the path to healing exactly as last year’s election placed us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist countless citizens demonstrating in the streets of their cities, like they performed recently during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of America is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism during the fifties or during the Vietnam war protests or in the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he knows the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening at present. For proof, he points to the recent massive protests, the extensive, cross-party resistance to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they solely cover approved content.

“The sleeping giant perpetually exists asleep until specific greed grows too toxic, an specific act so contemptuous toward public welfare, certain violence so disruptive, that he is forced except to rise.”

It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

In the meantime, the major inquiries persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its commitment 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 tells me that the second option is true; that everything might be lost. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, tells me that we must try, through all methods available.

For me, working in journalism analysis, that means urging journalists to commit, more fully, to their purpose of holding power to account. For others, it might involve working on political races, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Under twelve months back, we were in an alternate reality. Twelve months later? Or three years from now? The fact is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Provides Me Optimism Currently

The contact I encounter during teaching with young journalists, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always