The Devastating Shift Just One Year Has Caused in the US
In late October 2024, the landscape was completely distinct. Prior to the US presidential election, considerate citizens could admit the nation's significant faults – its injustices and inequality – yet they could still identify it as the US. A democracy. A land where legal governance held significance. A nation headed by a honorable and decent public servant, even with his elderly years and increasing frailty.
Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens barely recognize the nation we reside in. People suspected of being illegal immigrants are detained and pushed into transport, at times denied due process. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. Donald Trump is targeting his political rivals or alleged foes and demanding legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of potentially totaling almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, attorney offices, media outlets are buckling due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are handled as nobility.
“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into authoritarianism and fascism,” Garrett Graff, wrote recently. “Ultimately, swifter than I imagined possible, it did happen in America.”
One awakes with fresh terrors. It is hard to comprehend – and painful to realize – just how far gone we have become, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.
Nevertheless, it is known that the president was properly voted in. Despite his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the cautions associated with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – even after the president personally stated openly he planned to act as an autocrat solely at the start – a majority of citizens elected him over the other candidate.
While alarming as today's circumstances are, it's more frightening to understand that we are just three-quarters of a year under this leadership. Where will another 36 months of this downfall find us? And if the three years turns into a more extended duration, since there is not anyone to stop this ruler from deciding that additional tenure is necessary, possibly for defense purposes?
Certainly, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections in 2026 that could establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats regain the Senate or House of Congress. There are elected officials who are striving to exert certain responsibility, for example representatives currently starting a probe into the attempted fund seizure from legal authorities.
And a leadership election in the next cycle could start the path to recovery just as the prior selection placed us on this regrettable path.
There exist countless citizens protesting in public spaces of their cities, similar to recent in the past days at democracy demonstrations.
Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is awakening”, similar to past after the Communist witch-hunt era during the fifties or amid the Vietnam war protests or in the seventies crisis.
On those occasions, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.
He claims he knows the signals of that resurgence and notices it unfolding currently. For proof, he points to the widespread marches, the widespread, multi-faction opposition regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to government requirements they solely cover what is sanctioned.
“The slumbering entity always remains asleep until certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so offensive toward public welfare, certain violence so noisy, that it is compelled except to rise.”
It's a positive outlook, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll be validated.
In the meantime, the crucial issues remain: can America regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its commitment to the rule of law?
Or should we recognize that the historical project worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My pessimistic brain tells me that the final scenario is accurate; that everything could be finished. My positive feelings, however, advises me that we have to attempt, through all methods available.
In my case, working in journalism analysis, that involves urging journalists to live up, more fully, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it may be engaging with congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or finding ways to defend voting rights.
Not even one year prior, we were in a separate situation. A year from now? Or three years from now? The fact is, we don’t know. Our sole course is try to not give up.
What’s Giving Me Hope Now
The interaction I encounter with students with new media professionals, who are both hopeful and realistic, {always
