A Heartbreaking Shift Just One Year Has Caused in the US
One year ago, the landscape was completely different. Before the American presidential vote, considerate citizens could acknowledge the country's serious imperfections – its unfairness and inequality – however they still could see it as America. A democracy. A place where the rule of law meant something. A state led by a honorable and upright public servant, despite his advanced age and increasing frailty.
Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens scarcely know the nation we reside in. Individuals suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into transport, occasionally refused legal rights. The eastern section of the “people’s house” – is undergoing demolition for a grotesque ballroom. The president is targeting his political rivals or perceived antagonists and demanding federal prosecutors hand over a huge total of citizen dollars. Soldiers with weapons are deployed to US urban areas with deceptive justifications. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – liberated itself of routine media oversight as it spends possibly reaching close to a trillion USD of taxpayer money. Universities, attorney offices, media outlets are yielding from leader's menaces, and wealthy elites are regarded as members of the royal family.
“The United States, shortly prior to its 250th birthday as the planet's foremost free society, has fallen over the brink into autocracy and totalitarianism,” a noted author, commented in August. “Finally, faster than I thought feasible, it did happen in this country.”
Every morning starts to new horrors. And it is difficult to grasp – and distressing to accept – how severely declined we are, and how quickly it occurred.
Nevertheless, it is known that the president was properly voted in. Following his highly troubling initial presidency and despite the warnings that came with the awareness of the rightwing blueprint – following the leader directly declared plainly he would be a dictator solely at the start – a majority of citizens chose him instead of Kamala Harris.
Frightening as today's circumstances is, it's more frightening to understand that we’re only several months under this leadership. How will three more years of this deterioration leave us? And suppose that timeframe turns into an prolonged era, because there is no one to restrain this leader from determining that a third term is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?
Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be congressional elections the coming year that could establish an alternate balance of power, if Democrats regain either chamber of the legislature. There are government representatives who are trying to impose a degree of oversight, such as representatives that are launching an investigation regarding the effort to money grab by federal prosecutors.
And a presidential election three years from now could initiate the path to healing precisely as the previous vote put us on this regrettable path.
We see millions of Americans protesting in urban areas throughout communities, as they did recently in the No Kings rallies.
Robert Reich, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of America is rising”, just as it did post-McCarthyism in that decade or throughout anti-war demonstrations or in the Nixon controversy.
During those times, the listing ship eventually was righted.
The author states he understands the signals of that resurgence and observes it occurring currently. As evidence, he references the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, multi-faction opposition to a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal rejection by reporters to agree to the defense department’s demands they only publish approved content.
“The sleeping giant always remains asleep till some venality becomes so noxious, some action so offensive toward public welfare, specific cruelty so noisy, that the giant has no choice except to rise.”
It's a positive outlook, and I appreciate Reich’s experienced view. Maybe he’ll turn out correct.
In the meantime, the big questions persist: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its standing internationally and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or should we recognize that the 250-year-old experiment worked for a while, and then – suddenly, utterly – failed?
My pessimistic brain suggests that the latter is true; that everything might be lost. My optimistic spirit, though, tells me that we have to attempt, through all methods available.
Personally, as an observer of the press, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more completely, to their duty of holding power to account. For others, it may be working on election efforts, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to safeguard electoral access.
Less than a year ago, we existed in a very different place. A year from now? Or in several years? The fact is, we don’t know. All we can do is to attempt to not give up.
What’s Giving Me Hope Now
The contact I encounter during teaching with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously idealistic and practical, {always
