🔗 Share this article

One year ago, the situation was utterly different. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful residents could recognize America's deep flaws – its injustices and inequality – yet they continued to perceive it as the United States. A democracy. A land where the rule of law carried weight. A state headed by a dignified and ethical official, notwithstanding his older age and increasing frailty.

Currently, this autumn, countless Americans scarcely know the nation we live in. Persons alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and forced into transport, sometimes blocked from fair treatment. The left side of the White House – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. The leader is harassing his adversaries or alleged foes and demanding the justice department surrender a huge total 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 freed itself of regular press examination while it uses potentially totaling close to a trillion USD in public funds. Universities, attorney offices, news companies are buckling under the president’s threats, and billionaires are handled as members of the royal family.

“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has fallen over the limit into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

Every morning starts amid recent atrocities. It is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we are, and the rapid pace with which it has happened.

However, we know that the leader was duly elected. Following his highly troubling previous administration and even after the cautions associated with the knowledge of the conservative plan – even after the president personally declared plainly he intended to act as an autocrat only on the first day – sufficient voters selected him instead of Kamala Harris.

As terrifying as today's circumstances are, it's more daunting to realize that we are just three-quarters of a year under this leadership. What will another 36 months of this downfall position us? And what if the three years transforms into something even longer, since there is no one to stop this president from opting that another term is necessary, perhaps for national security reasons?

Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections the coming year that may establish an alternate governmental control, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of Congress. We have public servants who are trying to exert a degree of oversight, such as Democratic congressmen that are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a national vote in the next cycle could begin our journey to healing just as last year’s election put us on this regrettable path.

There exist millions of Americans protesting in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed recently in the No Kings rallies.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the dormant powerhouse of America is rising”, exactly as before post-McCarthyism in that decade or throughout the Vietnam war protests or throughout the Watergate scandal.

In those instances, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.

The author states he recognizes the signs of that resurgence and notices it unfolding now. As evidence, he cites the recent massive protests, the widespread, multi-faction opposition regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous defiance by media to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep before some venality grows too toxic, an specific act so disrespectful of the common good, specific cruelty so loud, that it has no choice but to awaken.”

It's a positive outlook, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll prove to be right.

In the meantime, the big questions persist: is the US able to ever recover? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or do we need to admit that the national endeavor succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain suggests that the final scenario is accurate; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we have to attempt, through all methods possible.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more fully, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it may be participating in political races, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to safeguard voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we don’t know. Our sole course is to strive to persevere.

What Offers Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always