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One year ago, the situation was entirely different. Ahead of the American presidential vote, thoughtful citizens could acknowledge the country's significant faults – its unfairness and inequality – yet they continued to perceive it as the United States. A democratic nation. A country where legal governance held significance. A country guided by a dignified and decent leader, notwithstanding his elderly years and growing weakness.

These days, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the land we reside in. People believed to be undocumented migrants are collected and shoved into vehicles, occasionally blocked from fair treatment. The eastern section of the White House – is being torn down to build a lavish ballroom. The leader is targeting his adversaries or supposed enemies and demanding federal prosecutors transfer a massive sum of public funds. Armed military personnel are dispatched to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, relabeled the Defense Ministry, has effectively rid itself of routine media oversight as it spends what could amount to close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Institutions, attorney offices, journalism organizations are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are handled as nobility.

“The US, just months before its 250-year mark as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the limit into authoritarianism and fascism,” Garrett Graff, stated recently. “In the end, swifter than I imagined possible, it transpired here.”

Each day begins with fresh terrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone we are, and the rapid pace with which it unfolded.

However, we know that Trump was duly elected. Despite his deeply disturbing previous administration and despite the cautions linked to the knowledge of the rightwing blueprint – even after Trump himself declared plainly he planned to act as an autocrat only on the first day – a majority of citizens chose him rather than his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the current reality is, it’s even scarier to recognize that we have only been several months into this presidential term. How will another 36 months of this deterioration position us? And suppose that timeframe transforms into something even longer, since there is no one to restrain this ruler from deciding that another term is required, maybe for national security reasons?

Certainly, all is not lost. There will be midterm elections next year that could establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats retake the Senate or House of parliament. There are government representatives who are attempting to exert a degree of oversight, for example lawmakers that are initiating an inquiry regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a presidential election three years from now could start the path toward restoration just as the prior selection put us on this disappointing trajectory.

There are countless citizens protesting in urban areas across municipalities, like they performed in the past days during anti-authority protests.

Robert Reich, commented this week that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is awakening”, just as it did following the Red Scare in the 1950s or amid the sixties activism or during the Watergate scandal.

During those times, the listing ship eventually was righted.

He claims he knows the signs of that resurgence and observes it occurring currently. As evidence, he cites the widespread marches, the broad, bipartisan pushback against a personality's dismissal and the almost universal defiance by media to accept the defense department’s demands they only publish approved content.

“The dormant force perpetually exists dormant before some venality turns extremely harmful, a particular deed so contemptuous of the common good, specific cruelty so disruptive, that he is forced except to rise.”

It’s an optimistic take, and I respect Reich’s experienced view. Perhaps he will prove to be right.

At the same time, the big questions endure: will the nation regain its footing? Is it possible to restore its status globally and its devotion to the rule of law?

Or must we acknowledge that the historical project worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?

My cynical mind suggests that the second option is true; that everything might be lost. My hopeful heart, though, advises me that we have to attempt, in whatever ways possible.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that involves urging journalists to live up, more thoroughly, to their mission of holding power to account. For others, it could mean working on election efforts, or coordinating protests, or discovering methods to defend ballot privileges.

Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or three years from now? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to not give up.

What Offers Me Optimism Currently

The interaction I encounter with students with young journalists, that are simultaneously visionary and practical, {always