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One year ago, the landscape was utterly distinct. Prior to the national election, thoughtful residents could recognize the country's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – but they could still perceive it as the US. A democracy. A country where the rule of law carried weight. A country led by a dignified and decent leader, even with his older age and growing weakness.

These days, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the land we live in. Individuals alleged as unauthorized foreigners are collected and pushed into vehicles, at times blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for an obscene ballroom. The president is targeting his political rivals or supposed enemies and insisting legal authorities transfer an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has practically rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of possibly reaching nearly $1tn from citizen taxes. Institutions, attorney offices, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and rich magnates are regarded as members of the royal family.

“The United States, shortly prior to its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has tipped over the edge toward dictatorship and totalitarianism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “In the end, faster than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it is challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how severely declined we are, and how quickly it occurred.

Yet, we understand that the president was duly elected. Even after his deeply disturbing first term and following the alerts associated with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself declared plainly he would be a dictator only on the first day – sufficient voters selected him instead of Kamala Harris.

While alarming as the current reality is, it's more daunting to recognize that we’re only three-quarters of a year under this leadership. What will another 36 months of this decline find us? And if that period becomes an prolonged era, because there is no one to limit this president from determining that a third term is essential, possibly for defense purposes?

Admittedly, all is not lost. We will have legislative votes the coming year that may bring a different governmental control, should Democrats regain one or both houses of the legislature. There exist elected officials who are trying to exert some accountability, for example Democratic congressmen who are initiating an inquiry into the attempted cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a presidential election three years from now could initiate the path toward restoration precisely as last year’s election put us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are countless citizens demonstrating in the streets throughout communities, like they performed in the past days at democracy demonstrations.

Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is stirring”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in the 1950s or during the sixties activism or in the seventies crisis.

During those times, the tilting vessel ultimately corrected itself.

He claims he recognizes the indicators of that resurgence and notices it unfolding currently. For proof, he references the widespread marches, the widespread, cross-party resistance regarding a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal defiance by media to sign government requirements they report only authorized information.

“The slumbering entity always remains dormant till specific greed grows too toxic, a particular deed so disrespectful of societal benefit, certain violence so noisy, that it has no choice other than to stir.”

It's a positive outlook, and I value Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will turn out correct.

At the same time, the big questions remain: can America regain its footing? Can it retrieve its standing globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the 250-year-old experiment functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the latter is correct; that everything could be finished. My optimistic spirit, though, advises me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

Personally, as a media critic, that involves encouraging reporters to adhere, more completely, to their mission of overseeing leadership. For others, it may be working on congressional campaigns, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend electoral access.

Not even one year prior, we were in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. All we can do is to attempt to not give up.

What Provides Me Encouragement Today

The interaction I encounter with students with new media professionals, that are simultaneously hopeful and realistic, {always