Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) joins me for a deeply human conversation about fear, resilience, and hope in our shared hometown of Chicago.

While we were talking, something struck me. This guy loves his city. He’s not showy or loud about it, but you can hear it in him, in his steady, clear-sighted judgment of the immorality of so much of ICE’s assault on the streets here, and in his quiet determination to use his office to help people withstand and eventually overcome it. Chicago is under assault, and Mike Quigley is working to defend this all-American metropolis. It’s his city. I love a guy who loves his city (even Green Bay.)

I am sensing the same civic force stirring across the country in the growing mass movement of citizens rising up to stop Trump’s authoritarian ambitions and plans. It’s not rage pulling people into action; not despair or fear, either, though many Americans indeed may feel all of that as they watch what’s happening.

It’s love. In this moment of peril for our democracy, for our nation as it was secured and bequeathed to us by our ancestors, it seems to me that many people may be falling back in love with America, or finding fresh passion for her.

For far too long too many people on the left may have felt embarrassed to say they love our country; many others might have thought America unworthy of their love. I’ve always disagreed with that perspective, and for a long time I’ve thought that it was a terrible mistake to surrender the normal feeling and practice of patriotism to the right. It is one of the most natural and honorable of human emotions to love the land you call home. America deserves our love, even when she has acted wrongly in the world. Especially then.

And now in this fraught and dark hour of our history, I think that kind of love for our country is rising again in so many of us. For some, it is a time of renewal of their patriotism for the America that we have inherited. For others, their love of this country is deepened by the prospect of the Trumpist alternative, the full scope of which is now apparent.

All of these emotions underly my talk with Rep. Quigley.

From ICE raids and National Guard deployments to neighbors stepping up for one another, the congressman shares how ordinary people are doing extraordinary things—and why he still believes America’s strength lies in its people.

Our discussion moves from politics to faith, from fear to compassion, and ends with a call to unity and perseverance in the face of division.

I’ve spent the past few days in Chicago, and I have seen here first-hand how so many Chicagoans are organizing, rising up, coming out, and offering a surprisingly effective model of human solidarity and practical confrontation to ICE and the rest of Trump’s illiberal apparatus. They are making a difference.

My video report on our trip to the “ City of Big Shoulders” will be out next week, here on Substack.

So watch our conversation through the link above. And join me in the comments — do you believe, as Mike Quigley does, that the basic decency of the American people is the key to beating back Trump’s authoritarianism?

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