A Tragic Change Just One Year Has Brought in the United States
One year ago, the landscape was utterly different. Prior to the US presidential election, thoughtful Americans could recognize the country's significant faults – its unfairness and disparity – yet they could still perceive it as America. A democratic nation. A country where legal governance meant something. A country led by a dignified and ethical official, notwithstanding his older age and increasing frailty.
These days, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the nation we reside in. Persons suspected of being undocumented migrants are rounded up and pushed into vans, at times refused legal rights. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being destroyed for a grotesque event space. The president is targeting his political rivals or alleged foes and insisting legal authorities surrender an enormous amount of taxpayer money. Soldiers with weapons are being sent to US urban areas on false pretexts. The Pentagon, renamed the War Department, has – in effect – rid itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to almost one trillion dollars from citizen taxes. Colleges, attorney offices, news companies are submitting under the president’s threats, and billionaires are handled as nobility.
“The US, only a few months ahead of its 250th birthday as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the edge into autocracy and extremism,” an American historian, wrote this past summer. “Ultimately, more quickly than I imagined possible, it did happen in this country.”
Every morning starts to new horrors. And it is hard to comprehend – and agonizing to acknowledge – just how far gone our nation is, and the rapid pace with which it occurred.
Yet, we understand that the leader was properly voted in. Even after his deeply disturbing previous administration and even after the cautions linked to the awareness of the conservative plan – following the leader directly stated openly he would rule as a tyrant just on day one – sufficient voters chose him rather than the other candidate.
While alarming as the present situation is, it's more frightening to recognize that we are just nine months under this leadership. What will another 36 months of this deterioration position us? And suppose that timeframe transforms into an prolonged era, as there is nobody to restrain this leader from determining that another term is required, maybe for security concerns?
Granted, not everything is hopeless. We will have midterm elections the coming year which might bring a different political equilibrium, should Democrats regain the Senate or House of parliament. There are elected officials who are attempting to apply certain responsibility, like Democratic congressmen currently initiating an inquiry concerning the try to fund seizure from legal authorities.
And a national vote three years from now could start our journey to healing precisely as the previous vote put us on this disappointing trajectory.
We see numerous residents marching in the streets of their cities, like they performed last weekend during anti-authority protests.
An ex-cabinet member, commented this week that “the dormant powerhouse of America is stirring”, exactly as before after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or during the sixties activism or in the seventies crisis.
On those occasions, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he understands the signals of that revival and notices it unfolding now. As support, he points to the large-scale demonstrations, the widespread, cross-party resistance against a broadcaster's firing and the almost universal refusal by journalists to agree to military mandates they solely cover what is sanctioned.
“The dormant force consistently stays asleep until certain corruption grows too toxic, some action so disrespectful of societal benefit, certain violence so loud, that he has no choice except to rise.”
It's a hopeful perspective, and I respect the author's seasoned opinion. Possibly he may turn out correct.
In the meantime, the big questions remain: will the nation return to normalcy? Can it reclaim its standing in the world and its adherence to legal principles?
Or do we need to admit that the historical project worked for a while, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My cynical mind indicates that the latter is true; that all may indeed be gone. My optimistic spirit, however, convinces me that we have to attempt, by any means possible.
Personally, as a media critic, that means encouraging reporters to commit, more thoroughly, to their purpose of overseeing leadership. For others, it could mean participating in political races, or planning demonstrations, or finding ways to defend ballot privileges.
Not even one year prior, we were in a very different place. In the future? Or after another term? The reality is, we don’t know. All we can do is try to persevere.
What Offers Me Optimism Currently
The engagement I encounter in the classroom with aspiring reporters, that are simultaneously visionary and grounded, {always
