Standing in front of the United States Capitol today, Senator Alex Padilla did something extraordinary. He called on the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Donald Trump from office. “Donald Trump is unraveling before our very eyes,” he said, pointing to the baseless voter fraud claims, the broken promises, and the unauthorized war with Iran that has already claimed the lives of 18 service members and wounded so many more. “This is why the 25th Amendment exists,” he said, calling on the Cabinet to act “before he can do more damage.”
But today I am thinking about a video that would not stop playing in the mind: ICE agents arresting a young man, and a mother screaming and crying as her child was held down and dragged away. And then the comments beneath it. “Thank you, ICE, for saving our country.” Laughing emojis. American flags. The same video, watched by two entirely different groups of people. In one America, people wonder whether today is the day someone they love does not come home because of how they look, or the language they speak, and the rest of us cannot watch a mother scream for her son without feeling it ourselves. In the other America, that same video is entertainment, something to cheer for. And what frightens most is that the people in that second America will tell you, with complete honesty, that they see nothing wrong with it. This is not a failure of empathy. It is the predictable outcome of years spent teaching people that cruelty is strength and compassion is weakness.
Cruelty like this never spreads all at once. It is directed at specific people first, in neighborhoods others do not live in, to people whose names they will never know, so everyone else can convince themselves it has nothing to do with them. That is how authoritarianism protects itself in the early days. But history tells us these movements never stop with the people they begin with. Today the targets are immigrants. Tomorrow it could be the journalists who expose it, the officials who defend them, the professors who teach the truth. The people who eventually found themselves targeted almost never believed they would be, right up until the moment the line was already crossed. And yet, the second America is starting to see it too. A Fox News poll released yesterday found 66 percent disapprove of his handling of the war, his approval among non-MAGA Republicans dropped 13 points in a single month, and he hit new lows with white and rural voters. Those numbers won’t stop a raid tomorrow morning. But they are proof he has not completely taken over. We still have time to save it.
See the full story in the video.
We are living through a pivotal moment for our country, and my goal is to reach as many people as possible with clear, factual information about what is happening. The more people who understand what is unfolding, the better our chances of pushing back against chaos, cruelty, and corruption ahead of the midterms.
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I’m fighting to save our country (before it’s too late).
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
This video is based on my written post, available HERE, and based on the events of 7-23-2026.
*This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Sources:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-oppose-iran-war-see-prolonged-commitment
