The Tragic Change Just One Year Has Caused in America
Twelve months back, the landscape was completely different. Before the national election, considerate citizens could admit the nation's serious imperfections – its unfairness and imbalance – however they still could identify it as America. A free society. A country where legal governance meant something. A country led by a respectable and ethical leader, despite his older age and declining health.
Currently, this autumn, many of us scarcely know the country we reside in. People believed to be undocumented migrants are rounded up and shoved into vans, at times blocked from fair treatment. The East Wing of the presidential residence – is being torn down for a grotesque dance hall. The president is persecuting his adversaries or alleged foes and requesting legal authorities transfer an enormous amount of public funds. Armed military personnel are being sent across metropolitan centers on false pretexts. The military command, renamed the Department of War, has – in effect – liberated itself of day-to-day journalistic scrutiny while it uses what could amount to nearly $1tn in public funds. Institutions, attorney offices, news companies are submitting due to presidential intimidation, and wealthy elites are regarded as members of the royal family.
“America, just months before its 250-year mark as the world’s leading democracy, has tipped over the limit into authoritarianism and fascism,” Garrett Graff, wrote this past summer. “In the end, faster than I imagined possible, it occurred in America.”
One awakes with fresh terrors. And it's challenging to understand – and agonizing to acknowledge – how deeply lost we are, and how quickly it has happened.
However, we understand that Trump was legitimately chosen. Despite his highly troubling first term and despite the cautions associated with the knowledge of the conservative plan – following the president personally declared plainly he planned to act as an autocrat just on day one – a majority of citizens elected him over his Democratic opponent.
While alarming as the current reality is, it's more daunting to realize that we are just several months into this administration. Where will an additional three years of this downfall position us? And what if the three years transforms into a more extended duration, because there is nobody to stop this leader from deciding that additional tenure is essential, maybe for security concerns?
Admittedly, not everything is hopeless. There will be legislative votes next year which might bring a different governmental control, in case Democrats recapture either chamber of the legislature. There exist government representatives who are attempting to apply certain responsibility, such as representatives who are starting a probe regarding the effort to fund seizure from the justice department.
And a presidential election three years from now could begin the path to recovery precisely as last year’s election placed us on this regrettable path.
We see numerous residents protesting in urban areas throughout communities, as they did recently in the No Kings rallies.
An ex-cabinet member, stated lately that “the great sleeping giant of the US is awakening”, similar to past post-McCarthyism in that decade or amid the sixties activism or throughout the seventies crisis.
In those instances, the listing ship ultimately corrected itself.
Reich says he knows the indicators of that awakening and sees it happening at present. As evidence, he points to the widespread marches, the broad, bipartisan pushback to a television host's removal and the near-unanimous refusal by journalists to accept military mandates they solely cover authorized information.
“The dormant force consistently stays asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, a particular deed so disrespectful of the common good, certain violence so loud, that it is compelled other than to stir.”
It’s an optimistic take, and I respect his knowledgeable stance. Possibly he may prove to be right.
At the same time, the major inquiries endure: will the nation ever recover? Can it retrieve its position globally and its adherence to constitutional order?
Or do we need to admit that the historical project functioned for a period, and then – swiftly, totally – ended?
My cynical mind suggests that the latter is correct; that everything might be lost. My optimistic spirit, though, advises me that we need to strive, through all methods we can.
In my case, as a media critic, that involves pushing media professionals to live up, more completely, to their purpose of scrutinizing authority. For some people, it might involve participating in political races, or coordinating protests, or finding ways to defend electoral access.
Not even one year prior, we existed in a separate situation. Twelve months later? Or after another term? The truth is, we cannot predict. All we can do is try to not give up.
What Offers Me Encouragement Today
The contact I experience during teaching with new media professionals, who are both idealistic and realistic, {always
