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I'm No Fan of Trump, But I Don’t Shun His Supporters
Real Clear Politics ^ | October 08, 2025 | Melinda Henneberger

Posted on 10/08/2025 10:54:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

A Dominican priest in Chicago who said he’d spent the day helping a young U.S. citizen who’d been beaten by ICE agents after he was “detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home” posted some video of tear gas. “America,” he wrote, “we are better than this.”

The irony is that a lot of us have spent our lives convinced that we really were better than this, and now Donald Trump seems hell-bent on proving us wrong. He has declared war on some U.S. cities, where our military is, according to him, supposed to train on those “enemy within” populations that didn’t vote for him. Stephen Miller claims a Trump-appointed judge who ruled that the administration can't send troops into Portland is part of a “legal insurrection” in the face of a coordinated “terrorist attack” on the federal government. This is why some of us do not necessarily believe that everything and everyone the government labels a terrorist really is one.

Yet those who approve of all that’s happening in this country do not mystify me, and partly that’s because they do not believe that this is what is happening. Frustratingly for some of my friends, I will never agree that this means all Trump supporters are x or are y. And last weekend, in my hometown of Mount Carmel, Illinois, population 7,015, I was reminded why.

I went home to be inducted into my small public high school’s hall of fame there, in red rural southern Illinois, right across the Wabash River from Indiana. Mount Carmel High School is the one everybody in Wabash County attends. When I was in school, we did not have AP classes or test prep, and I only knew one person who even applied to an Ivy League college,...

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bloggers; tds
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1 posted on 10/08/2025 10:54:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
“America, we are better than this.”

Couldn't agree more. We are a nation of laws, not men. After all, as the Dems keep telling us, "nobody is above the law."


2 posted on 10/08/2025 10:58:13 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Our daughters family has. Oh well.


3 posted on 10/08/2025 10:59:20 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🚫💉! 🇮🇱🙏! Winning currently!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

INVASION BY ALL DEMOCRAT VOTERS!


4 posted on 10/08/2025 10:59:28 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion.....the HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If this young citizen was handled by ICE, it’s more than likely because he was harrassing or defying ICE. They have better things to do than just randomly “beat” people.


5 posted on 10/08/2025 11:00:40 AM PDT by skr (1 Peter 1:15 - But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I want to know how many illegal alien criminals she is going to invite into HER HOME my guess is none. Its ironic when Obama was President he was called the Deporter in Chief, and NO ONE on the left complained, its only when Trump deports people its an issue for them, so I know its fake outrage


6 posted on 10/08/2025 11:02:10 AM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

“A Dominican priest in Chicago”

I stopped right there.


7 posted on 10/08/2025 11:03:11 AM PDT by CaptainK ("No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up” )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
“detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home”

Go ahead and shun, Melinda, piss off and take your fallacies with you. I voted for this and don’t GAS about your lame examples of forgiven crimes. And it’s not the illegal’s sidewalk, it’s ours.

8 posted on 10/08/2025 11:04:46 AM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Dominican priest in Chicago who said he’d spent the day helping a young U.S. citizen who’d been beaten by ICE agents after he was “detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home” posted some video of tear gas.

I'm very skeptical of this, to say the least. If anyone in ICE is acting out of line, absolutely they should be held to account and punished. But I think it's 100X more likely the "young U.S. citizens" was doing something worthy of his experience, like interfering with ICE actions and trying to help others break the law.

Again, though, we have a responsibility to not sink the the Left's level. ICE agents should hold themselves to the highest standards and expect punishment for indefensible acts. Cleaning up a mess of millions of illegal invaders will inevitably involve some missteps. We should be ready to apologize for them and always try to do better. If we do so we can fairly point out that the greater share of the blame lies with Leftists who created such a huge mess in the first place. But if we sink to their level we lose that argument. Don't make excuses.

9 posted on 10/08/2025 11:06:16 AM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Melinda Henneberger writes for the Washington Post and the New York Times - ‘Nuff said.

A Cafeteria Catholic, just like Pelosi, Durbin, Biden, etc.

Oh, they’re so moral - not.


10 posted on 10/08/2025 11:08:51 AM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: mikey_hates_everything
a young U.S. citizen who’d been beaten by ICE agents after he was “detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home”
11 posted on 10/08/2025 11:08:53 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: CaptainK

“I stopped right there.”

That makes two of us. I don’t trust anyone associated with granting sanctuary to illegal invaders.


12 posted on 10/08/2025 11:09:00 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't. )
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To: skr

I agree. The introductory sentence is not credible. It goes downhill from there.

Are we to praise the author as being open-minded because she does not shun Trump supporters? Then praise everyone on Free Republic who does not shun Obama supporters.


13 posted on 10/08/2025 11:09:38 AM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

A Dominican priest in Chicago who said he’d spent the day helping a young U.S. citizen who’d been beaten by ICE agents after he was “detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home.

Sure why not. It’s not like ICE has any work to do. Why not wast the day catching and releasing US citizens.


14 posted on 10/08/2025 11:10:28 AM PDT by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: CaptainK
A Dominican priest in Chicago

There are two likely possibilities:

1.) The "young U.S. citizen" lied about his experience. (You see anarchists on YouTube assaulting ICE agents, and after the agents defend themselves you see those anarchists lying about it on Democrat media.)

2.) The priest made up the whole thing.

15 posted on 10/08/2025 11:10:53 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.)
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To: CaptainK


"I stopped right there."


Same.
16 posted on 10/08/2025 11:11:00 AM PDT by Bikkuri (We are all Charlie now. I am Charlie!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Did the young US citizen’s name rhyme with Jussie Smollett? Bubba Wallace?


17 posted on 10/08/2025 11:15:54 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: rktman

The author claims a civil respect towards Trump supporters and decries stmts such as Stephen Miller’s which point to her continued disrespect and disdain. YET, she mentiins NOTHING of Obama’s ‘bitter ckingers’ or Hillary’s ‘Deplorables’ and how Biden would live to ‘punch’ the Trump supporter...etcetcetc.
If you want to be an arbitrator or civility—> you have to call out hateful language on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.... geesh!!!


18 posted on 10/08/2025 11:16:00 AM PDT by 4 Libertys sake (Fighting the good fight against enemies, domestic and unrepentant!!!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

This screed lacks any merit at all.


19 posted on 10/08/2025 11:20:08 AM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: NorthMountain

Illegal or not, don’t cop a ‘tude toward Federal agents when they stop you to ask a question in an illegal infested area. You’ve seen these people’s behavior on YouTube and the news which is partly why Trump is “invading” Chicago according to Pritzker. I’ll bet that interaction with ICE didn’t just happen for nothing.


20 posted on 10/08/2025 11:21:51 AM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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