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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Beauty of Jamie Raskin's America, on Display at Trump's Impeachment Trial
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-beauty-of-jamie-raskins-america-on-display-at-trumps-impeachment-trialDaily Comment
The Beauty of Jamie Raskins America, on Display at Trumps Impeachment Trial
By Bill McKibben
February 12, 2021
snip//
It was to the Constitution that Raskin returned, via the Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence, in his closing remarks on Thursday. He noted that democracygovernment of, by, and for the peopleis the exception on this planet, and always has been. Ours, of course, was utterly imperfect from the start, and utterly imperfect it remains: a slave republic, as Raskin put it, that is still a place where George Floyd can be murdered by authorities in broad daylight. But the basic insight of the Founders, the idea that all men are created equal, had, Raskin insisted, allowed us to unleash waves of political struggle and constitutional change and transformation, so that we could become the worlds greatest multiracial, multireligious, multiethnic constitutional democracy, the envy of the world. These Founders had, at the start, one great fear, he said, Presidents becoming tyrants and wanting to become kings. Thats why, he explained, they wrote the oath of office into Article II of the Constitution, with its pointed insistence that the Presidents job is to uphold and defend that very document.
snip//
On Thursday, Raskin, arguing gamely for a conviction that everyone knows he cannot win, had to pretend that his audience of senators shared his assumptions about democracy. But, of course, many of them didntmany had truckled to Trump precisely in order to maintain position and privilege. Is there anyone who thinks that a 1776 version of Lindsey Graham would have been fighting alongside Sam Adams and Tom Paine? Its much easier to imagine him as a bewigged and bewildered gent ordering the servants to pack the household baggage for the move back to London with the other Tories. That members of the party that licked Trumps spittle called themselves Republicans and pretended their subservience was somehow an attack on élites is a reminder of the power of the idea that they have done their best to wreck.
One has to stand up to that privilege and rank and vested interest constantly, so Raskins case was made for historya case against Trump, and the next Trump, and the Trump after that, if were lucky enough to endure as a country to see those challenges. And, if we are that lucky, it will be because new generations of Raskins will keep standing up to power, very much in the progressive tradition that goes back to our founding. American history is full of ugliness, but there is beauty at its core, as well, and that was what illuminated this weeks proceedings.
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The Beauty of Jamie Raskin's America, on Display at Trump's Impeachment Trial (Original Post)
babylonsister
Feb 2021
OP
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)1. That is a wonderful essay/portrait of Representative Raskin!
More from the opening paragraphs:
The first time I remember meeting Jamie Raskin it was dark, and we were standing atop the great steps of Harvards Widener Library, looking out over a sea of candles. I was a reporter for the Crimson, the student daily; he was an undergrad organizing against the Reagan Administrations involvement in Central America, and had just pulled off an enormous rally in Harvard Yard. Hed given a burning, powerful speech; the crowd of students, not an easy audience, had roared and roared.
I thought of that moment on Thursday, as I listened to Raskin, now the Democratic representative from Marylands Eighth Congressional District, close out the prosecution presentation in Donald Trumps second impeachment trial. Raskin had opened the arguments on Tuesday with a personal, passionate speech that described his family members hiding from the rioters in the Capitol on January 6th; it was as powerful and effective as the speech he gave on that long-ago Cambridge night. But his speech on Thursday was even more important: it was, I think, a classic defense of American history, even of the exceptionalism of American history. That it was left to the leftbecause Raskin is very much a man of the leftto make that case is telling. Although constantly accused of undermining American pride, of debasing American history, progressives are, in fact, the ones who actually understand the nations story. (my bold)
Raskin grew up in the lefthis father, Marcus, after a few early years in the Kennedy Administration, quit to set up, with Richard Barnet, the most important progressive think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies. Marcus was a stalwart of the antiwar movementhe co-edited The Vietnam Reader, which was used at teach-ins across the nation, and he stood trial, alongside Dr. Spock and William Sloane Coffin, for urging resistance to the draft. When Daniel Ellsberg stole the Pentagon Papers, he handed them to Raskin père. Marcus Raskin later chaired the group that led the nuclear-freeze campaign.
I thought of that moment on Thursday, as I listened to Raskin, now the Democratic representative from Marylands Eighth Congressional District, close out the prosecution presentation in Donald Trumps second impeachment trial. Raskin had opened the arguments on Tuesday with a personal, passionate speech that described his family members hiding from the rioters in the Capitol on January 6th; it was as powerful and effective as the speech he gave on that long-ago Cambridge night. But his speech on Thursday was even more important: it was, I think, a classic defense of American history, even of the exceptionalism of American history. That it was left to the leftbecause Raskin is very much a man of the leftto make that case is telling. Although constantly accused of undermining American pride, of debasing American history, progressives are, in fact, the ones who actually understand the nations story. (my bold)
Raskin grew up in the lefthis father, Marcus, after a few early years in the Kennedy Administration, quit to set up, with Richard Barnet, the most important progressive think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies. Marcus was a stalwart of the antiwar movementhe co-edited The Vietnam Reader, which was used at teach-ins across the nation, and he stood trial, alongside Dr. Spock and William Sloane Coffin, for urging resistance to the draft. When Daniel Ellsberg stole the Pentagon Papers, he handed them to Raskin père. Marcus Raskin later chaired the group that led the nuclear-freeze campaign.
crickets
(25,983 posts)2. Bookmarking to read later. K&R