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One year ago, the landscape was completely separate. Before the national election, thoughtful Americans could admit the country's serious imperfections – its inequities and disparity – yet they continued to identify it as the United States. A free society. A land where legal governance meant something. A nation led by a respectable and decent public servant, even with his advanced age and declining health.

Nowadays, this autumn, numerous citizens barely recognize the country we live in. People believed to be unauthorized foreigners are rounded up and pushed into vans, at times refused legal rights. The left side of the “people’s house” – is being destroyed to build a lavish dance hall. The president is targeting his adversaries or perceived antagonists and insisting the justice department hand over a massive sum of citizen dollars. Uniformed troops are being sent into American cities with deceptive justifications. The defense headquarters, rebranded the Defense Ministry, has – in effect – liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny as it spends possibly reaching almost one trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Colleges, law firms, news companies are buckling from leader's menaces, and billionaires are regarded as aristocracy.

“The United States, only a few months ahead of its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the brink toward dictatorship and extremism,” an American historian, commented recently. “Finally, more quickly than I believed likely, it did happen in America.”

One awakes amid recent atrocities. And it's challenging to understand – and distressing to accept – how deeply lost we have become, and the speed at which it has happened.

However, it is known that the leader was legitimately chosen. Following his deeply disturbing previous administration and following the alerts that came with the understanding of the rightwing blueprint – following the president personally stated openly he intended to be a dictator only on the first day – enough Americans chose him instead of his Democratic opponent.

As terrifying as the present situation are, it’s even scarier to recognize 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 a more extended duration, because there is not anyone to stop this president from opting that additional tenure is essential, perhaps for defense purposes?

Certainly, there is still hope. We will have legislative votes next year which might create a new political equilibrium, in case Democrats regain the Senate or House of the legislature. We have elected officials who are trying to impose a degree of oversight, for example Democratic congressmen who are starting a probe regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.

And a national vote in the next cycle could initiate us down the road to healing exactly as the prior selection set us on this regrettable path.

We see countless citizens marching in public spaces across municipalities, like they performed last weekend during anti-authority protests.

A former official, wrote recently that “the great sleeping giant of the nation is stirring”, just as it did after the Communist witch-hunt era in the 1950s or during the Vietnam war protests or in the Nixon controversy.

During those times, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.

Reich says he understands the signals of that revival and observes it occurring at present. As support, he points to the widespread marches, the broad, cross-party resistance against a television host's removal and the almost universal defiance by media to sign government requirements they solely cover authorized information.

“The sleeping giant consistently stays dormant till certain corruption becomes so noxious, some action so contemptuous of societal benefit, specific cruelty so loud, that he is compelled other than to stir.”

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

At the same time, the major inquiries remain: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its position globally and its adherence to the rule of law?

Or should we recognize that the national endeavor worked for a while, and then – abruptly, completely – collapsed?

My cynical mind indicates that the latter is true; that everything could be gone. My hopeful heart, nevertheless, convinces me that we must try, in whatever ways available.

In my case, working in journalism analysis, that’s about encouraging reporters to commit, more thoroughly, to their mission of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve engaging with political races, or coordinating protests, or developing approaches to protect voting rights.

Less than a year ago, we lived in an alternate reality. A year from now? Or after another term? The fact is, we cannot predict. Our sole course is to strive to not give up.

What’s Giving Me Optimism Currently

The engagement I have with students with new media professionals, who are equally idealistic and practical, {always