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One year ago, the environment was utterly separate. Prior to the US presidential election, considerate citizens could admit America's significant faults – its inequities and imbalance – yet they continued to perceive it as the United States. A free society. A country where the rule of law carried weight. A state led by a honorable and ethical public servant, despite his older age and increasing frailty.

Nowadays, this autumn, many of us barely recognize the nation we reside in. Persons believed to be unauthorized foreigners are detained and forced into transport, at times blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the “people’s house” – is being torn down for an obscene dance hall. The president is harassing his opponents or supposed enemies and requesting legal authorities hand over a massive sum of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are deployed into American cities under fabricated reasons. The military command, renamed the Defense Ministry, has effectively freed itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Universities, attorney offices, media outlets are submitting under the president’s threats, and billionaires are regarded as nobility.

“The US, just months before its 250^th birthday as the globe's top democratic nation, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, wrote recently. “In the end, swifter than I imagined possible, it occurred here.”

Every morning starts to new horrors. It is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost we are, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, we understand that the president was duly elected. Even after his highly troubling first term and following the cautions associated with the awareness of the conservative plan – following the leader directly said publicly he intended to act as an autocrat just on day one – sufficient voters chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the current reality may be, it’s even scarier to understand that we have only been nine months under this leadership. What will an additional three years of this deterioration leave us? And what if that timeframe turns into something even longer, because there is no one to stop this ruler from deciding that a third term is necessary, possibly for security concerns?

Granted, not everything is hopeless. There are legislative votes the coming year which might create a new balance of power, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of Congress. We have elected officials who are attempting to apply some accountability, for example Democratic congressmen currently initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to money grab by federal prosecutors.

And a presidential election in 2028 could start the path to recovery precisely as the previous vote set us on this disappointing trajectory.

There exist numerous residents marching in public spaces throughout communities, as they did in the past days during anti-authority protests.

An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is rising”, just as it did following the Red Scare in that decade or throughout the Vietnam war protests or throughout the seventies crisis.

During those times, the unstable nation eventually was righted.

The author states he knows the indicators of that revival and observes it occurring now. For proof, he cites the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition regarding a personality's dismissal and the almost universal rejection by reporters to sign the defense department’s demands they only publish what is sanctioned.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep until some venality turns extremely harmful, some action so contemptuous toward public welfare, specific cruelty so noisy, that the giant is compelled except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I appreciate his knowledgeable stance. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.

At the same time, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to return to normalcy? Can it retrieve its status globally and its devotion to legal principles?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor functioned for a period, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind suggests that the latter is correct; that all may indeed be gone. My positive feelings, nevertheless, convinces me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways possible.

Personally, as a media critic, that’s about urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For some people, it may be participating in election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to protect ballot privileges.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. In the future? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to strive to persevere.

What Offers Me Optimism Currently

The interaction I experience with students with aspiring reporters, who are equally idealistic and grounded, {always