This Is Not Our America

We need to be brutally honest about what’s happening. The barbaric reality unfolding in Minneapolis, in Washington, DC, and coming soon to all of our communities. Because this—this—is not our America.

I know what you’re thinking. “Here we go, another liberal screed.” But no. This isn’t about left versus right. This is about us versus what we’re becoming. And if you voted for Donald Trump because you wanted lower grocery prices, better jobs, and regulated immigration—I get it. Those are legitimate concerns. They’re your concerns, and they matter.

But did you vote for this?

The America We’re Witnessing

The murders of Renee Good, a mother who’d just dropped her six-year-old son off at school, and Alex Pretti, a nurse who helped veterans with their health care, are a big flashing red sign. Both were 37 years old. Both were American citizens.

We are the frog in the pot of water, and the pot is now boiling. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has unmasked itself as the enemy of the American people. An American gestapo.

Before her body was cold, the administration was calling Renee Good a “domestic terrorist” who “weaponized her vehicle.” Officials initially claimed Alex Pretti was an “assassin” who intended to “massacre” federal agents. Every talking point that Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and ICE leadership said immediately after both murders were lies—and they knew it when they said it. The fish rots from the head.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, watching the same footage, said plainly what we all knew: “That is bullshit.” This is happening in America. Today. As you read this.

Since Trump’s inauguration, ICE has conducted raids in schools, hospitals, and places of worship—locations that should be off-limits. In Newark, agents detained American citizens alongside immigrants, including a military veteran, without a warrant. In California, farmworker Jaime Alanis Garcia fell 30 feet to his death while fleeing ICE agents during a greenhouse raid.

According to the libertarian CATO Institute (previously a reliable supporter of Republican candidates), less than 5% of ICE detainees have violent criminal records, and 73% have no convictions at all. Meanwhile, agricultural harvests are failing across the country because workers are too terrified to show up. Construction sites sit empty. The economy you voted to improve is hemorrhaging because authoritarian rule is working exactly as intended.

First they came for the immigrants, but I did not speak out—because I was not an immigrant.

This is not the “law and order” that was promised. This is chaos wrapped in a flag.

The Promises vs. The Reality

Remember what the campaign was about?

Lower prices. How’s that working out? With immigrant workers fleeing their jobs in terror, food is rotting in fields from California to Georgia. Construction projects are stalled. The very industries that keep prices low are collapsing under the weight of this enforcement surge. Prices aren’t going down—they’re going up.

Better jobs. Sure, there are 317,000 fewer federal employees now. DOGE and Elon Musk claimed they’d save us a trillion dollars and balance the budget. The reality? Federal spending increased by $301 billion in fiscal year 2025. The deficit? Still $1.8 trillion. The national debt? It grew by $2.2 trillion to over $38 trillion.

The Federal Government is not cutting waste. They’re cutting the Department of Education down to three employees in the office that handles special education while the ICE terrorizes our neighborhoods. They’re canceling climate research and cancer prevention programs while defense spending and immigration enforcement costs skyrocket. This isn’t fiscal responsibility—it’s an ugly form of authoritarian performance art.

Regulated immigration. Yes, you wanted border security. So did I. But we didn’t vote for military-style helicopter raids at 1 AM with flashbangs thrown at families. We didn’t vote for American citizens being zip-tied alongside immigrants. We didn’t vote for schools closing because children are afraid their parents will be taken while they’re learning their ABCs.

There’s a difference between immigration enforcement and state-sponsored terror. We’ve crossed that line. We’re way past that line.

The Mad King

And then there’s the stuff that doesn’t even pretend to be about what you voted for.

For months, Trump refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. Read that again. Military force to invade allied territories. Denmark—a NATO ally—was threatened with tariffs if it didn’t hand over Greenland. Panama’s democratically elected president was told the canal “should” be returned to American control.

World leaders from France to Germany have publicly stated that European borders “must not be moved by force.” Think about that. Our European allies feel compelled to remind the President of the United States that international law still exists. That sovereignty matters.

When did threatening to invade our allies become part of “Making America Great Again”? It only makes sense when you realize that America under Donald Trump is already an authoritarian regime.

If you voted for Trump, you voted for a fighter. Someone who wouldn’t back down. Someone who’d shake up the system and put America first. I understood the appeal. The economy was struggling. Inflation was crushing working families. The border felt chaotic. Washington felt broken.

But here’s what you didn’t vote for: mothers being shot in their cars while supporting their neighbors. American citizens being detained without warrants. Children being traumatized by raids on their schools. Farmworkers dying while fleeing federal agents. The deficit exploding while essential services get gutted. Threats to invade allied countries.

You voted for solutions. We got the Mad King.

What Congress MUST Do

Here’s the thing about living through moments like these: they demand ACTION. Not tweets. Not vibes. ACTION.

Because while MAGA extremists and resistance activists scream at each other across the divide, there’s a massive middle that just wants a functioning country. People who go to work, pay their taxes, love their families, and expect their government to be sane. That’s you. That’s most of us.

And we have power, if we get out of our funk and get organized. NOW.

Every authoritarian regime in history has relied on the same thing: normal people deciding it’s not their problem. But when normal people decide they’ve had enough, they can change everything. Not through revolution. Through participation.

Some members of Congress have started rumbling about another government shutdown. Congressional funding for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security runs out in the next month. NOW is the time to make a stand.

Not a single dollar more for ICE unless and until:

• Every ICE agent leaves Minnesota — NOW

• Kristi Noem is removed from her post as the head of DHS

• Todd Lyons is removed from his post as the head of ICE

• New rules are immediately written such that ICE agents can no longer conduct their work disguised by masks. ICE agents need badges with names and numbers like every police officer in America.

• DHS’ and ICE’s budget returns to 2023 levels

• We need to strangle this American gestapo before it gains any more strength

What We MUST Do

But that’s not enough. WE need to take action too. The 2026 midterm elections will determine whether this administration gets a blank check for two more years or faces real accountability. NOW. The primaries—happening in spring and summer 2026—will determine what choices we even get to make in November.

Here’s what works:

Register and vote in the primaries. That’s where real choices get made. If you wait until November, you’re picking between the fringe elements in both parties. Turnout is pathetically low in the primaries, which means your vote matters exponentially more.

Support problem-solvers, not performers. Look for candidates who answer questions, have entrepreneurial, business, or community organizing experience, and prioritize governing over fighting. We need a new generation in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who understand the world we actually live in. The old guard had their shot.

Join Indivisible (indivisible.org) and march. It’s not partisan—it’s American. Their meetings teach effective organizing in nearly every congressional district. Indivisible volunteers are teachers, nurses, accountants, parents—not career activists, just people who decided this matters more than being comfortable. Our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 because they believed “No Kings” should rule over America. Its time for us to sign up ourselves.

Make your voice heard. Call your representatives. Send letters. Congressional offices track constituent calls and letters religiously. A few hundred calls can change a vote. Show up at town halls. Write to your local paper. Organize with neighbors who also wanted solutions, not this. Have conversations, not arguments. Find common ground: “We both want safe communities. What’s happening isn’t making us safer—it’s making us afraid of our own government.”

Protect your neighbors. Document what you see. Know your rights. Support legal defense funds. This isn’t about your position on immigration enforcement—it’s about whether government acts with basic decency.

The Choice Ahead

This is not about saving the Democratic Party or destroying the Republican Party. This is about saving the America we thought we lived in. The America where mothers don’t get shot by federal agents for supporting their neighbors. The America where we solve problems instead of creating catastrophes. The America where we’re proud of what we stand for, not ashamed of what we’ve become. That America is still possible. But only if we fight for it.

Not with violence. Not with chaos. With votes. With voices. With the fundamental tools of democracy that generations before us fought and died to protect.

Register. Vote in the primaries. Support common sense candidates. Join Indivisible. Make your voice heard.

Because this—all of this—is not America. But it could be, if we let it. Don’t let it be.