🔗 Share this article

In late October 2024, the environment was utterly separate. Prior to the national election, reflective Americans could acknowledge the country's deep flaws – its unfairness and inequality – however they still could perceive it as the US. A democratic nation. A land where constitutional order held significance. A country headed by a respectable and upright public servant, even with his elderly years and increasing frailty.

These days, this autumn, numerous citizens scarcely know the nation we live in. Persons suspected of being undocumented migrants are collected and shoved into vans, sometimes refused legal rights. The eastern section of the presidential residence – is undergoing demolition for an obscene event space. Donald Trump is targeting his opponents or alleged foes and requesting the justice department surrender a massive sum of public funds. Uniformed troops are deployed into American cities with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, relabeled the Department of War, has practically freed itself of regular press examination during its expenditure of potentially totaling nearly $1tn in public funds. Colleges, legal practices, journalism organizations are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and billionaires are treated like members of the royal family.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250^th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented this past summer. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it transpired in this country.”

Every morning starts with fresh terrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and painful to realize – how deeply lost we have become, and how quickly it has happened.

Nevertheless, we know that the president was duly elected. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and following the cautions associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – even after the leader directly said publicly he would be a dictator solely at the start – sufficient voters selected him instead of the other candidate.

While alarming as the present situation may be, it’s even scarier to understand that we have only been three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. Where will another 36 months of this decline leave us? And suppose that timeframe turns into an prolonged era, because there is no one to stop this leader from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, maybe for national security reasons?

Admittedly, all is not lost. We will have congressional elections next year that could create a new balance of power, in case Democrats recapture the Senate or House of the legislature. We have government representatives who are striving to impose a degree of oversight, such as lawmakers that are initiating an inquiry into the attempted fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a national vote three years from now could start our journey to recovery exactly as the previous vote put us on this regrettable path.

There are numerous residents marching in public spaces throughout communities, as they did recently in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the slumbering force of the nation is rising”, exactly as before following the Red Scare in that decade or amid the sixties activism or during the seventies crisis.

In those instances, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he recognizes the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding currently. As evidence, he cites the widespread marches, the extensive, cross-party resistance to a television host's removal and the largely united defiance by media to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish approved content.

“The dormant force always remains dormant till specific greed becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous toward public welfare, some brutality so loud, that the giant is compelled except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Possibly he may prove to be right.

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 constitutional order?

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

My negative thoughts indicates that the final scenario is true; that everything might be lost. My hopeful heart, though, convinces me that we need to strive, through all methods available.

Personally, as a media critic, that’s about urging journalists to commit, more completely, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For others, it may be engaging with congressional campaigns, or planning demonstrations, or developing approaches to protect electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we existed in a very different place. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to not give up.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

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