He watched as the Kennedy administration launched a massive buildup on the basis of a fabricated “missile gap.” He was an early and profound critic of the crackpot logic of mutually assured destruction. He was most appalled by the madness of the nuclear arms race. From the beginning, Marc questioned the entrenched assumptions of the Cold War foreign-policy consensus. Kennedy’s national security staff under McGeorge Bundy. Still in his 20s, he joined President John F. Marc was a prodigy in both piano and in public policy. In a city filled with strivers eager to trumpet conventional wisdom, Raskin saw through the trappings of power and the lies and myths that buttress it and called on us to change our course and rebuild our democracy. It was Marc Raskin who introduced his son Jamie to The Nation.įor more than 60 years, the elder Raskin, a philosopher, teacher, author, activist, and citizen, provided piercing, informed, and independent insight into the state of our republic. Jamie also dazzled with searing constitutional analysis laced with quotes from Tom Paine, Lincoln, Voltaire, and many other great minds, including this one from his beloved father, Marc Raskin: “Democracy needs a ground to stand on and that ground is the truth.” He, like his father, is a great teacher. The House impeachment managers performed a priceless service to the country. But, thanks to Jamie and his team, the citizenry know now the threat posed by Trump’s sedition and by the senators’ cowardice. They declined, no doubt able to deceive themselves as they looked in the mirror. He asked them to stand for the Republic, for the Constitution that they take an oath to defend, for their own families, for their own sense of honor. In doing so, he and his colleagues left an indelible stain on Trump, and exposed, sadly, the utter cravenness of Republican senators. Jamie has long taught about the fragility of democracy, the spine of the Constitution, the treachery of a demagogue, and the necessity of justice. And his grace has always moved us, never more so than when he suffered an unimaginable personal tragedy-on the last day of 2020 when Jamie lost his 25-year-old son, Tommy, to depression and suicide.
In our pages, and at Nation events, he has been reasoned, passionate, compelling, and eloquent.
We consider Jamie, a deeply valued contributor on legal and justice issues for over 40 years, a member of The Nation family.
Representative jamie raskin trial#
Raskin, a law professor who was elected to the House after a long career in Maryland’s Senate, in academia, and in activism, opened the trial with an intellectually dazzling argument for why the trial was constitutionally legitimate and morally necessary. “ When students of the American story ask 100 years from now how the United States began to find its way back from the mob violence, destruction, and death that Donald Trump unleashed on this country, they will recall the prose and poetry with which Representative Jamie Raskin damned the former president who incited insurrection against democracy.” So wrote Nation national affairs correspondent John Nichols just hours after Raskin displayed his remarkable power as the leader of the House’s team of impeachment managers for Trump’s second impeachment trial.
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