A Heartbreaking Transformation Just One Year Has Caused in the United States
One year ago, the situation was utterly separate. Ahead of the American presidential vote, reflective residents could admit America's significant faults – its injustices and imbalance – however they could still identify it as the United States. A democratic nation. A place where legal governance carried weight. A country guided by a honorable and ethical official, despite his advanced age and growing weakness.
Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens hardly identify the country we live in. People suspected of being unauthorized foreigners are detained and forced into vans, occasionally denied due process. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed to build a lavish dance hall. The president is targeting his opponents or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of citizen dollars. Armed military personnel are deployed to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight during its expenditure of possibly reaching nearly $1tn of taxpayer money. Colleges, law firms, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as nobility.
“The US, just months before its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the brink into autocracy and fascism,” Garrett Graff, commented recently. “Ultimately, swifter than I imagined possible, it occurred here.”
Each day begins amid recent atrocities. It is hard to comprehend – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost our nation is, and how quickly it has happened.
Yet, we know that the president was legitimately chosen. Following his profoundly alarming initial presidency and despite the warnings linked to the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – despite the leader directly declared plainly he intended to be a dictator only on the first day – a majority of citizens chose him rather than Kamala Harris.
Frightening as the present situation is, it’s even scarier to realize that we’re only several months into this presidential term. Where will another 36 months of this downfall find us? And if that timeframe becomes something even longer, as there is nobody to restrain this president from opting that additional tenure is necessary, possibly for national security reasons?
Admittedly, all is not lost. There are congressional elections in 2026 which might bring a different political equilibrium, if Democrats recapture one or both houses of the legislature. We have government representatives who are attempting to apply some accountability, like representatives currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to fund seizure by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election three years from now could begin the path to healing precisely as the previous vote put us on this unfortunate course.
There are millions of Americans demonstrating in the streets throughout communities, as they did in the past days during anti-authority protests.
A former official, wrote recently that “the slumbering force of the nation is awakening”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in that decade or during the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.
On those occasions, the unstable nation eventually was righted.
Reich says he recognizes the indicators of that resurgence and sees it happening at present. As support, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition regarding a television host's removal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to sign government requirements they report only approved content.
“The dormant force always remains inactive until certain corruption grows too toxic, an specific act so disrespectful of societal benefit, some brutality so noisy, that he is forced other than to stir.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I value his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll be validated.
At the same time, the crucial issues persist: can America return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its status in the world and its adherence to the rule of law?
Or do we need to admit that the 250-year-old experiment succeeded temporarily, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My cynical mind tells me that the second option is true; that all may indeed be finished. My positive feelings, however, advises me that we must try, by any means available.
In my case, as an observer of the press, that involves urging journalists to adhere, more fully, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it might involve participating in congressional campaigns, or organizing rallies, or developing approaches to protect electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we lived in a very different place. A year from now? Or three years from now? The reality is, we are uncertain. The only option is to strive to persevere.
What Provides Me Hope Now
The contact I experience in the classroom with new media professionals, that are simultaneously idealistic and realistic, {always
