By Tommy Acosta
Sedona, AZ –Whether you are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, one truth remains: the vast majority of people on this planet are, at their core, decent. They believe in fairness, in dignity, and in the simple idea that other human beings matter.
It is precisely that shared sense of humanity that will drive the coming midterm elections. And it is why this election will not hinge on policy minutiae or talking points, but on conscience. What is coming is a blue wave born not of ideology, but of empathy.
The reason is painfully clear.
Images have power. And the images now circulating—of people being dragged from their workplaces, pulled out of schools, removed from churches, torn from their families by authorities—cut across political lines. They strike something deeper than party loyalty. They hit the heart.
Yes, remove violent criminals. Most people agree on that. But ripping mothers from children, fathers from families, neighbors from communities, and sending them into uncertain futures is something else entirely. It is wrong. And most Americans know it, even if they hesitate to say it out loud.
This is not what the majority of Americans signed up for.
Treating human beings like animals because their paperwork is incomplete is not strength—it is cruelty. And cruelty, no matter how it is packaged, does not sit well with people who care about humanity. With good people. With ordinary people who imagine themselves, their children, or their neighbors on the other side of that door.
As the administration demands higher arrest numbers from ICE and other agencies, enforcement will inevitably grow more aggressive, more forceful, more ruthless. Quotas do that. Bureaucracy does that. Power does that when it is detached from compassion.
More families will be torn apart.
More children will lose parents overnight.
More fear will ripple through communities that once felt safe.
And eventually, there will be a reckoning. Because when the so-called “criminals” are gone, the pressure to meet quotas will not disappear. The tactics will escalate. The net will widen. And the moral line will blur even further.
Those who once stood on the fence—moderate Republicans, independents, quiet conservatives—will recoil. Some will stay home. Others will change their affiliation. Many will simply refuse to participate in a system that feels increasingly un-American.
At the same time, Democrats and others who find these raids unnecessary and deeply offensive will be galvanized. They will vote with urgency, with anger, and with purpose. Power will shift—not because of slogans, but because of revulsion.
It would be politically wiser—though morally hollow—for sympathetic media outlets to stop showing the arrests altogether and redirect attention toward street protests and disorder instead. But even that won’t erase what people have already seen. You can’t unsee a child crying as a parent is taken away.
And looming over everything is the most unsettling question of all:
What happens when there are no undocumented immigrants left to deport?
Where do the tens of thousands of armed agents go next?
History offers an uncomfortable answer.
So think carefully, freedom-loving Americans.
Because compassion doesn’t belong to one party.
And when a nation loses sight of that, elections are the least of its worries.
This is an advertisement
7 Comments
Sounds reasonable Tommy but when Hatred fills the highest offices in command of the nation and world being reasonable or expecting people to behave reasonably and with compassion while being suppressed, oppressed and regulated by a corrupt governmental system does not work. The safe guards allowing for such humanity have all been long removed, the judges, lawyers, scientists, politicians, talk show hosts etc. have all been long silenced.
I’ve hoped daily that Trump and MAGA are, were and will be an apparition that would one day fade into the annals of history like the Fascist Nazi’s of Europe we’re supposed to have done following WWII. Unfortunately greedy hate filled people who happen to also be the worlds wealthiest hate filled people hold tremendous sway over politicians both here and abroad (some of them have become politicians themselves both here and abroad) and they will all do whatever it takes to keep their ill gotten gains to include propping up the worst of the worst. Which is precisely what we have here and abroad today.
It’s not going away anytime soon but it is at least partially on the way out. Sadly we will never ever rid ourselves of greedy hateful hate filled people just as we will never eliminate Nazism, Fascism and Totalitarianism. They however will succeed in their goal of eliminating and eradicating the rest of us from the planet unless the majority of the people bring a Bigly Hammer down on the hateful minority that rears it’s selfish fugly head time and time again. As long as we play by the rules while they break every rule and law ever written we will remain their servants and victims.
Mr. Acosta, You have finally written a piece I can whole-heartedly agree with!! And with no glaring grammatical errors ;-} Congratulations!!
Yes, any American who cares about others is reeling from the vile tactics, unnecessary violence and sheer cruelty of trump’s ICE agents. Most people here in Sedona have hired a Hispanic person for yardwork or cleaning or something. I certainly have! And I’ve always found them to be good, honest hard-working folks. Plus nice, friendly, thoughtful and responsible. As a woman, I haven’t felt threatened or unsafe alone with any of them.
We in AZ live on twice-stolen land, first taken from Indigenous people, then from Mexico. Yup, until an unjust war in 1848, this area and much more belonged to Mexico. There are Hispanic Arizonans whose families have been here since before it was part of the US. And migrant workers are a centuries old resource who have helped make America great.
So, of all Americans, we should especially stand up for them!
@Blue Boelter
Thank you for reminding folks whose land this truly is. 176 years ago today, Mexico lost 55% of its territory
Mexico used to own vast territories in the American Southwest, which became all or parts of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma, following the Mexican-American War and the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded over half of Mexico’s land to the U.S..
Key Territories Ceded (Mexican Cession):
Entire States: California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona.
Parts of States: Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma.
Texas: The independent Republic of Texas, previously part of Mexico, also joined the U.S., leading to the war.
We basically stole the land from them under threat of violence. Mexican’s are not Spaniards they were colonized slave of Spanish rule. Mexicans are Indigenous peoples just like our indigenous tribes here. In fact they’re genetically related. Take Geronimo for example. He was Mescalero Apache a tribe with deep Mexican roots. There’s strong evidence that many tribes in North America migrated from South America and some possibly from Asia though that has yet to be definitively proven.
Unfortunately money talks and nothing and nobody else matter in the world of MAGA.
Jill, thank you for fleshing out the details! Took me decades of personal research to learn “how the west was won.” Racism, greed, violent theft…
Blue, they don’t teach actual factual American history in US Schools. We started to slowly do so but MAGA likes their fables and lies about how the country was and always will be a White Nationalist Evangelical country rather than the Democracy it has long claimed to be as the rich get richer, poor poorer and ethnic minorities who actually owned and or physically built this country cast to the wayside or deported for being anything but a White Nationalist Evangelical hater. MAGA and Trump have set the tone for dictators and haters worldwide while accusing other countries of failing economically just like ours has because of their pro migrant and pro ethnic minority policies like France and Great Britain had until MAGA reared its sickly head. This is exactly what Adolph Hitler did in order to ascend to his throne of hate and power and ended up hurting and killing the very people he and the Nazi Party claimed to be protecting from his fictitious boogeyman known as the Jews, the Gays, Communists, Scientists, Actors, Comedians, Judges and political opponents to his criminal incompetence and insanity. Sound familiar? It should because Project 2025 was written to duplicate such ignorance and hate but relative to destroying a free, fair and Democratic America vs his hate filled fascist guide book known as Mein Kampf (Hitler’s Project 2025 hate guide for haters).
It’s a sad time for this country and those who swallowed the Matrix red and blue pills of our shoved down our throats by The Daughters of the Confederacy and the history books they re-wrote for our school system to indoctrinate our children into believing our countries government has and can do no wrong despite it’s numerous atrocities, genocides, global colonialism and history of slavery- all encouraged and plotted by America’s wealthiest while being carried out by a reluctant majority of poor and ethnic people. Not to make our nation stronger but to make its wealthy wealthier at everyone else’s blood and sweat expense!
“Trump says “we are going to run the country” in remarks following strike on Venezuela”
The Wall Street Journal
https://apple.news/A5LYXYjR8Qsuepm8I4G1yAA
Well so much for King Trump being a “No Foreign Entanglements/War KOTUS. This makes conflict #9 he has dedicated US Military lives and equipment in- Syria, Iran, Yemen, Gaza, Nigeria, Somalia and now Venezuela. I don’t really count Ukraine because we have been “entangled” there since Rusher illegally invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014 because Ukraine is NOT a conflict of choice for the US if it desires to remain one of the few checks and balances upon Putin and his criminal regime.
Love how “We” are going to “run Venezuela “ now which is NOT ours to run. Maduro will like fall the way of Noriega who spent his final days living in and out of a Miami FL Federal detention center that permitted him to go out on the Miami economy to shop and eat if he so desired. King Trump and his criminal enterprise will rob Venezuela of its oil and minerals while charging its citizens for “our protection” as they do so. Venezuelan citizens who stood and fought Maduro face to face have already been cast aside by our greedy grifters of our own administration so the wealth of Venezuela goes to them not the rightful owners. This has long been the case in Venezuela, first American Oil Companies robbed them blind while the CIA staged coup after coup in attempts to install a US puppet/stooge who would give the US everything and anything it asked for which is where we find ourselves again today under King Trump Inc.
Putting Criminals out of power is a noble endeavor but not when one Criminal is replaced by another one!
Maduro’s ouster on drug charges comes as Trump lets others free
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/03/nx-s1-5665695/maduro-trump-drug-dealer-pardons
Seems it’s ok and easier to Pardon and pal up with ISIS members now a country leader who has US military blood on their hands and Nicaraguan Cartel Leaders and a former Iran Contract Conspirator than it is to silence or eliminate those who have oil and gems in their lands. Guessing Maduro made it clear there would be no Trump Resort in Caracas or elsewhere in Venezuela and paid the price for not bending the knee?