A Devastating Change Only 12 Months Has Brought in the United States
One year ago, the situation was entirely separate. Ahead of the US presidential election, thoughtful Americans could admit America's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – but they continued to perceive it as the US. A democratic nation. A land where constitutional order carried weight. A state guided by a dignified and decent public servant, even with his older age and declining health.
These days, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the nation we reside in. People believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and shoved into vehicles, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the White House – is being torn down for a grotesque dance hall. The president is persecuting his opponents or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities transfer an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent into American cities on false pretexts. The defense headquarters, relabeled the Department of War, has practically rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of what could amount to close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Institutions, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as aristocracy.
“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and extremism,” a noted author, wrote recently. “Finally, faster than I believed likely, it transpired in this country.”
Each day begins amid recent atrocities. And it is challenging to understand – and painful to realize – how severely declined our nation is, and the speed at which it has happened.
Yet, it is known that the leader was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing initial presidency and even after the warnings linked to the awareness of Project 2025 – even after the president personally declared plainly he would act as an autocrat only on the first day – a majority of citizens elected him rather than his Democratic opponent.
While alarming as the current reality may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year under this leadership. Where will three more years of this decline position us? And suppose the three years becomes something even longer, since there is not anyone to restrain this ruler from determining that a third term is essential, possibly for security concerns?
Certainly, there is still hope. There will be congressional elections the coming year which might create a new balance of power, if Democrats regain either chamber of the legislature. There exist elected officials who are striving to exert certain responsibility, like representatives currently initiating an inquiry into the attempted fund seizure from the justice department.
And a presidential election in the next cycle could begin us down the road toward restoration precisely as the previous vote put us on this regrettable path.
We see numerous residents marching in public spaces across municipalities, as they did in the past days during anti-authority protests.
An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of America is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in the 1950s or throughout anti-war demonstrations or in the Nixon controversy.
In those instances, the listing ship eventually was righted.
Reich says he understands the indicators of that resurgence and notices it unfolding currently. For proof, he points to the widespread marches, the extensive, multi-faction opposition regarding a personality's dismissal and the largely united rejection by reporters to accept the defense department’s demands they report only authorized information.
“The slumbering entity perpetually exists inactive till specific greed turns extremely harmful, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, some brutality so loud, that the giant is forced except to rise.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.
At the same time, the major inquiries persist: will the nation regain its footing? Can it reclaim its status globally and its devotion to constitutional order?
Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My negative thoughts tells me that the final scenario is accurate; that everything might be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, advises me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways possible.
For me, working in journalism analysis, that involves urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their duty of holding power to account. For different individuals, it may be engaging with congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to safeguard ballot privileges.
Not even one year prior, we lived in a separate situation. A year from now? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. The only option is try to persevere.
What Provides Me Encouragement Today
The contact I have with students with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always
