🔗 Share this article

One year ago, the situation was completely different. Ahead of the US presidential election, considerate residents could recognize America's deep flaws – its unfairness and inequality – however they still could identify it as America. A democracy. A place where the rule of law carried weight. A nation guided by a respectable and decent public servant, despite his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, this autumn, many of us hardly identify the land we inhabit. Persons believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and forced into vans, at times blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is persecuting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting federal prosecutors transfer a massive sum of taxpayer money. Armed military personnel are deployed across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, relabeled the War Department, has practically rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Institutions, law firms, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as nobility.

“The US, just months before its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the brink into autocracy and fascism,” a noted author, wrote recently. “Ultimately, faster than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”

One awakes to new horrors. It is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how severely declined our nation is, and how quickly it has happened.

Yet, we understand that Trump was duly elected. Following his highly troubling first term and following the warnings associated with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself stated openly he planned to act as an autocrat only on the first day – enough Americans selected him instead of his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the current reality may be, it's more daunting to understand that we have only been three-quarters of a year under this leadership. How will another 36 months of this decline find us? And if that timeframe transforms into something even longer, since there is no one to restrain this ruler from deciding that another term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?

Certainly, there is still hope. There will be legislative votes next year that could create a new political equilibrium, should Democrats regain the Senate or House of parliament. We have elected officials who are attempting to apply a degree of oversight, for example representatives who are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to cash appropriation from the justice department.

And a presidential election in 2028 could initiate the path to recovery precisely as the previous vote put us on this regrettable path.

We see millions of Americans protesting in the streets across municipalities, similar to recent in the past days at democracy demonstrations.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is awakening”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in that decade or during anti-war demonstrations or in the seventies crisis.

During those times, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he knows the signs of that revival and sees it happening currently. For proof, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to accept government requirements they solely cover what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity always remains inactive before specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, specific cruelty so noisy, that he is forced other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

At the same time, the big questions endure: will the nation return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its status in the world and its adherence to legal principles?

Or must we acknowledge that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My cynical mind tells me that the latter is true; that everything might be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we need to strive, by any means available.

In my case, as a media critic, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their mission of holding power to account. For different individuals, it could mean working on congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to defend electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we are uncertain. The only option is try to not give up.

What Offers Me Hope Now

The contact I have in the classroom with aspiring reporters, who are both visionary and practical, {always