By DENNIS HARROD
Jamie Raskin knows about adversity. As an outspoken opponent of President Trump, the Maryland Democrat has attracted more than his share of vitriol from the president’s supporters. One recent posting on Facebook announcing Raskin’s upcoming appearance in Cazenovia with Rep. John Mannion drew the following remarks (punctuated and spelled as written):
“Wow a world record for stupid on the same stage!!! 2 of the biggest assholes in politics?!!!”
And the even more eloquent:
“Jamie Rattlesnake Towel Head Traitor POS Libtarded Marxist DumbocRat”.
Distasteful as it is to repeat such statements, they go far in showing how rabid is the response to Raskin, how devoid of actual evidence it is, and how full of ignorant fear his opponents are. The anti-Muslim slur is in reference to the head covering Raskin wore while he was going through chemotherapy for cancer.
These comments also show what we’re up against in the upcoming election. If you’re OK with this kind of intellectually lazy name-calling as a political platform, then don’t vote. And if you’re OK with the racism, misogyny, homophobia and everything else that characterizes the Trump administration and today’s Republican party, then you can sit back and do nothing. Who knows how the election will turn out? Who cares?
Jamie Raskin cares. He has been fighting for what he believes is right since he entered politics in 2006. “It’s not my ambition to be in the political center,” he said back then. “It’s my ambition to be in the moral center – and bring the political center to us.”
Adversity seems to follow Raskin and he embraces it. His 2022 book Unthinkable describes the devastating days between Dec. 30, 2020, when his son died by suicide after a long battle with depression, and Jan. 6, 2021 when a Trump-inspired mob attacked Congress shouting, “Kill Mike Pence!” Pence of course was the erstwhile darling of the right until he crossed his boss and refused to break the law.
In the aftermath of the attack on Congress, Raskin helped draft an impeachment article against Trump. After the House voted to impeach Trump by a vote of 232-197, Raskin became the lead impeachment manager in Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. Following the Senate’s failure to convict, Raskin was named to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th insurrection. So Trump doesn’t like him very much. Neither do his acolytes.
Raskin isn’t my representative, but he along with Rep. John Mannion (who is my representative), will be in Central New York Oct. 17 speaking on behalf of the Madison County Democratic Committee. They will be speaking about the midterm elections and how important it is to show up and vote.
Every day we see polls saying the Republicans are toast, the country is turning on Trump and that his poll numbers are in the sewer along with most of his actions. Don’t believe a word of it. A New York Times listing of 10 polls on Nov. 8, 2016 (the day of the election) showed Hillary Clinton leading in nine of them. We know how that turned out. Today (Sept. 29, 2026) The New York Times showed a poll that gave Trump a 60% disapproval rating. 33% of those polled still approve of him, though.
As Galen Druke, founder of the GD POLITICS podcast, explained in a talk for the Cazenovia Forum a few years back, polls represent probability, not certainty. Uncertainty is a key factor in any poll. So, what a poll tells you is essentially what might happen. Not what’s going to happen. Don’t bet the farm on it. If you want something to happen, it’s up to you. Ignore the polls. Vote. And get others to vote, too.
That’s one of Raskin’s main messages. Ever since he ran for the Maryland State Senate in 2006 and defeated a 32-year incumbent by a 2-to-1 margin, he has relied on organizing and getting people to become engaged in the system and vote. Especially young people. He’s the founder of Democracy Summer, the Democrats’ nationwide program that has engaged thousands of young people in training for political activism. (More info here: https://jamieraskin.com/democracy-summer/)
Raskin was known in the Maryland State Senate for bipartisan successes, and he still defines himself in broad political terms.
“Whenever anyone calls me a liberal, I say ‘You’re damn right,’ because at the heart of that word is ‘liberty,’” he is quoted as saying in Shameless by Brian Tyler Cohen. “And I’m a progressive, because at the heart of that word is ‘progress.’ And these days, I’m very happy to call myself a conservative, because … I want to conserve the land, air, water, the climate system, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Clean Air Act, the Social Security Act, the Medicare Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, you name it.”
His fight now is with the Trump administration and its enablers. “The responsibility to govern,” he has said, “has been replaced by the need to attack, to perform, to obstruct, to provoke. This reality is getting exponentially worse year after year – and as citizens, we are becoming dangerously numb to it.”
Overcoming the numbness and despair brought on by the years of dysfunction brought on by Trump and his crew takes a lot of energy. And hope. In his epilogue to The January 6th Report, Raskin remembers what his father used to say. “When everything looks hopeless, you are the hope.”
Overcome the hopelessness, the numbness and the despair. Vote. And hope.
The Madison County Democratic Committee’s Annual “Get Out the Vote” event featuring representatives Jamie Raskin and John Mannion will be October 17th, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Wildcat Athletic Center, 18 Liberty St., Cazenovia. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mcdcgotvevent26. Dennis Harrod is a co-founder of Sense of Decency.
