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Twelve months back, the landscape was completely different. Before the American presidential vote, thoughtful Americans could acknowledge the nation's serious imperfections – its injustices and disparity – but they could still see it as the United States. A democracy. A place where the rule of law meant something. A nation guided by a respectable and decent leader, even with his elderly years and growing weakness.

Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens scarcely know the country we inhabit. People alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into vans, sometimes denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is being torn down for a grotesque ballroom. The president is targeting his opponents or supposed enemies and requesting legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of public funds. Soldiers with weapons are being sent to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, renamed the Department of War, has practically liberated itself of regular press examination while it uses possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Colleges, law firms, news companies are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as aristocracy.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its quarter-millennium anniversary as the world’s leading democracy, has crossed the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, wrote recently. “In the end, more quickly than I thought feasible, it occurred in America.”

Each day begins to new horrors. It is difficult to grasp – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, we know that the leader was legitimately chosen. Following his highly troubling initial presidency and even after the alerts linked to the awareness of the conservative plan – despite Trump himself said publicly he intended to act as an autocrat only on the first day – sufficient voters chose him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as today's circumstances is, it's more frightening to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year into this presidential term. How will three more years of this deterioration position us? And what if the three years transforms into a more extended duration, as there is nobody to stop this leader from deciding that additional tenure is required, perhaps for national security reasons?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There will be midterm elections in 2026 that may establish an alternate governmental control, in case Democrats retake either chamber of Congress. There are elected officials who are attempting to exert a degree of oversight, for example representatives that are launching an investigation concerning the try to fund seizure from legal authorities.

And a leadership election in the next cycle could begin us down the road to healing exactly as the previous vote set us on this regrettable path.

There are numerous residents demonstrating in urban areas throughout communities, similar to recent in the past days during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of America is rising”, exactly as before following the Red Scare during the fifties or throughout the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Nixon controversy.

In those instances, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

Reich says he knows the indicators of that revival and sees it happening currently. As evidence, he cites the recent massive protests, the widespread, bipartisan pushback to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to accept government requirements they report only what is sanctioned.

“The slumbering entity always remains dormant till specific greed becomes so noxious, a particular deed so contemptuous toward public welfare, some brutality so noisy, that it is forced except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.

At the same time, the major inquiries persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its position in the world and its devotion to legal principles?

Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My cynical mind suggests that the final scenario is true; that everything might be gone. My positive feelings, nevertheless, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

For me, as an observer of the press, that involves urging journalists to commit, more thoroughly, to their duty of scrutinizing authority. For others, it may be participating in political races, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to defend electoral access.

Under twelve months back, we lived in a separate situation. In the future? Or in several years? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is to strive to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The contact I experience with students with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and grounded, {always