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Twelve months back, the environment was utterly different. Before the US presidential election, reflective Americans could admit the nation's significant faults – its injustices and disparity – yet they still could see it as the US. A democratic nation. A country where the rule of law meant something. A country led by a respectable and upright leader, notwithstanding his advanced age and growing weakness.

Currently, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the land we inhabit. People alleged as undocumented migrants are rounded up and shoved into vans, sometimes denied due process. The left side of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition to build a lavish event space. Donald Trump is harassing his political rivals or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities hand over an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are deployed into American cities with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, rebranded the War Department, has effectively rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny during its expenditure of what could amount to almost one trillion dollars in public funds. Colleges, law firms, news companies are yielding from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as aristocracy.

“The United States, shortly prior to its 250^th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has crossed the edge into authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” an American historian, stated recently. “In the end, faster than I believed likely, it did happen in America.”

One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we are, and how quickly it occurred.

However, we understand that Trump was duly elected. Even after his highly troubling previous administration and following the cautions associated with the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – following Trump himself said publicly he planned to rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters elected him over his Democratic opponent.

Frightening as the present situation may be, it’s even scarier to realize that we have only been three-quarters of a year under this leadership. What will three more years of this downfall find us? And suppose that timeframe becomes an prolonged era, because there is nobody to stop this ruler from deciding that a third term is necessary, maybe for security concerns?

Admittedly, there is still hope. There are midterm elections next year that could bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats regain the Senate or House of Congress. There are elected officials who are striving to impose certain responsibility, such as lawmakers who are launching an investigation regarding the effort to cash appropriation from legal authorities.

And a presidential election in the next cycle could initiate us down the road toward restoration exactly as the prior selection placed us on this unfortunate course.

There exist millions of Americans protesting in the streets of their cities, similar to recent last weekend at democracy demonstrations.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in that decade or during anti-war demonstrations or during the Nixon controversy.

On those occasions, the tilting vessel finally returned to balance.

Reich says he recognizes the signals of that awakening and sees it happening now. As support, he cites the recent massive protests, the extensive, cross-party resistance regarding a personality's dismissal and the near-unanimous rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they report only authorized information.

“The dormant force consistently stays asleep till certain corruption becomes so noxious, an specific act so contemptuous of the common good, certain violence so noisy, that it is compelled except to rise.”

It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will be validated.

In the meantime, the major inquiries remain: is the US able to regain its footing? Can it retrieve its status internationally and its commitment to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the historical project succeeded temporarily, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My pessimistic brain tells me that the second option is accurate; that everything could be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways possible.

For me, as an observer of the press, that means encouraging reporters to live up, more thoroughly, to their duty of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean engaging with election efforts, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to safeguard voting rights.

Under twelve months back, we were in a separate situation. A year from now? Or three years from now? The fact is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to attempt to continue fighting.

What Offers Me Hope Now

The contact I have during teaching with young journalists, who are both hopeful and practical, {always