The Tragic Transformation Only 12 Months Has Made in the US
Twelve months back, the environment was utterly distinct. Prior to the national election, considerate Americans could admit America's significant faults – its injustices and disparity – yet they continued to identify it as the United States. A democracy. A land where the rule of law meant something. A nation led by a dignified and upright official, even with his older age and declining health.
Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens scarcely know the nation we reside in. Persons suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and forced into transport, at times denied due process. The East Wing of the White House – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is targeting his adversaries or perceived antagonists and requesting legal authorities transfer a huge total of public funds. Uniformed troops are being sent into American cities on false pretexts. The Pentagon, rebranded the Department of War, has practically freed itself of routine media oversight while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Universities, legal practices, news companies are buckling under the president’s threats, and rich magnates are treated like aristocracy.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the brink into autocracy and extremism,” Garrett Graff, stated this past summer. “Finally, faster than I believed likely, it transpired in America.”
One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and painful to realize – just how far gone we are, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.
However, we know that the president was properly voted in. Even after his highly troubling first term and despite the alerts associated with the awareness of Project 2025 – despite the leader directly declared plainly he intended to be a dictator just on day one – sufficient voters elected him rather than Kamala Harris.
Frightening as the current reality are, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been nine months under this leadership. How will three more years of this deterioration find us? And what if that timeframe turns into a more extended duration, because there is nobody to limit this leader from determining that a third term is required, perhaps for security concerns?
Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There are midterm elections next year which might bring a different governmental control, if Democrats retake one or both houses of parliament. We have government representatives who are trying to exert some accountability, such as representatives currently starting a probe concerning the try to money grab from legal authorities.
And a presidential election three years from now could start our journey toward restoration precisely as last year’s election put us on this disappointing trajectory.
There are millions of Americans marching in urban areas of their cities, like they performed in the past days in the No Kings rallies.
An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of the US is stirring”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism during the fifties or amid anti-war demonstrations or throughout the seventies crisis.
During those times, the unstable nation ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he understands the signals of that awakening and observes it occurring at present. For proof, he references the recent massive protests, the extensive, multi-faction opposition against a broadcaster's firing and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to agree to military mandates they solely cover what is sanctioned.
“The slumbering entity perpetually exists dormant before certain corruption turns extremely harmful, some action so disrespectful of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that the giant is forced but to awaken.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I appreciate the author's seasoned opinion. Perhaps he will be validated.
In the meantime, the big questions persist: is the US able to return to normalcy? Is it possible to restore its standing globally and its devotion to legal principles?
Or do we need to admit that the historical project worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the latter is correct; that everything might be lost. My positive feelings, however, tells me that we must try, in whatever ways available.
For me, as a media critic, that’s about urging journalists to commit, more fully, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it may be engaging with election efforts, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to safeguard voting rights.
Under twelve months back, we lived in a very different place. A year from now? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is to strive to not give up.
What Offers Me Optimism Currently
The contact I encounter with students with young journalists, that are simultaneously idealistic and practical, {always
