A Devastating Transformation Only 12 Months Has Made in the US
One year ago, the landscape was entirely different. Prior to the national election, reflective citizens could admit the nation's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – but they continued to identify it as America. A free society. A country where legal governance held significance. A nation guided by a honorable and decent leader, notwithstanding his older age and declining health.
Nowadays, as October 2025 ends, numerous citizens hardly identify the country we reside in. People alleged as illegal immigrants are collected and shoved into transport, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque event space. The leader is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting federal prosecutors transfer a huge total of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are deployed into American cities with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, relabeled the Department of War, has practically liberated itself of regular press examination while it uses potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, law firms, media outlets are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.
“The United States, shortly prior to its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the limit toward dictatorship and extremism,” a noted author, commented recently. “Finally, swifter than I thought feasible, it transpired here.”
One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we are, and how quickly it unfolded.
Yet, we understand that the leader was legitimately chosen. Even after his highly troubling previous administration and following the alerts linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself stated openly he intended to rule as a tyrant only on the first day – sufficient voters selected him rather than his Democratic opponent.
Frightening as the current reality is, it's more frightening to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this administration. How will another 36 months of this decline position us? And what if that period turns into an prolonged era, since there is not anyone to stop this president from opting that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for security concerns?
Granted, there is still hope. We will have legislative votes in 2026 that may bring a different governmental control, should Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. We have elected officials who are striving to exert a degree of oversight, for example representatives currently initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a national vote three years from now could start the path to recovery exactly as the prior selection set us on this unfortunate course.
There are countless citizens marching in urban areas of their cities, as they did recently during anti-authority protests.
An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is stirring”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid the sixties activism or during the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the unstable nation finally returned to balance.
He claims he knows the signals of that awakening and notices it unfolding at present. As support, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, bipartisan pushback to a broadcaster's firing and the largely united refusal by journalists to sign military mandates they only publish what is sanctioned.
“The sleeping giant perpetually exists inactive until certain corruption grows too toxic, some action so disrespectful of the common good, certain violence so loud, that the giant is compelled other than to stir.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.
At the same time, the big questions persist: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its standing in the world and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?
My negative thoughts suggests that the final scenario is correct; that everything might be finished. My optimistic spirit, though, advises me that we need to strive, through all methods available.
In my case, as a media critic, that’s about pushing media professionals to live up, more thoroughly, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For different individuals, it might involve participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or discovering methods to defend electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we existed in a separate situation. In the future? Or in several years? The fact is, we are uncertain. The only option is try to not give up.
What Offers Me Encouragement Today
The interaction I have with students with new media professionals, who are both visionary and practical, {always
