Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
Book by Jamie Raskin
DETAILS
Publisher : Harper (January 4, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 448 pages ISBN-10 : 0063209780 ISBN-13 : 978-0063209787 Item Weight : 1.4 pounds Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #13,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #5 in Elections #5 in U.S.Congresses, Senates & Legislative #417 in Memoirs (Books) , A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence. On December 31, 2020, Tommy Raskin, the only son of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, tragically took his own life after a long struggle with depression. Seven days later on January 6, Congressman Raskin returned to Congress to help certify the 2020 Presidential election results, when violent insurrectionists led by right wing extremist groups stormed the U.S. Capitol hoping to hand four more years of power to President Donald Trump. As our reeling nation mourned the deaths of numerous people and lamented the injuries of more than 140 police officers hurt in the attack, Congressman Raskin, a Constitutional law professor, was called upon to put aside his overwhelming grief—both personal and professional—and lead the impeachment effort against President Trump for inciting the violence. Together this nine-member team of House impeachment managers riveted a nation still in anguish, putting on an unprecedented Senate trial that produced the most bipartisan Presidential impeachment vote in American history. Now for the first time, Congressman Raskin discusses this unimaginable convergence of personal and public trauma, detailing how the painful loss of his son and the power of Tommy’s convictions fueled the Congressman’s work in the aftermath of modern democracy’s darkest day. Going inside Congress on January 6, he recounts the horror of that day, a day that he and other Democrats had spent months preparing for under the correct assumption that they would encounter an attempted electoral coup—not against a President but for one. And yet, on January 6, he faced the one thing he had failed to anticipate: mass political violence designed to block Biden’s election. With an inside account of leading the team prosecuting President Trump in the Senate, Congressman Raskin shares never before told stories of just how close we came to losing our democracy that fateful day and lays out the methodical prosecution that convinced Democrats and Republicans alike of Trump’s responsibility for inciting insurrectionary violence against our government. Through it all, he reckons with the loss of his brilliant, remarkable son, a Harvard Law student whose values and memory continually inspired the Congressman to confront the dark impulses unleashed by Donald Trump. At turns, a moving story of a father coping with his pain and a revealing examination of holding President Trump accountable for the violence he fomented, this book is a vital reminder of the ongoing struggle for the soul of American democracy and the perseverance that our Constitution demands from us all. Read more
REVIEW
PREFACE *Jamie Raskin is singularly positioned to introduce empathy to his reader as the critical antidote to both personal and national traumas. PROLOGUE *It is January 6, 2021, and Jamie Raskin grieves for his beloved son, Tommy. Some consolation is provided by the poignant reminiscences of a father, courtesy of the unsolicited mental snapshots featuring Tommy. Today, personal grief is, of necessity, preempted by democracy’s dictates, vis a vis the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. Though Joe Biden won convincingly both the popular and electoral college tabulations, Donald Trump has refused to concede, advancing unfounded conspiracy theories of voter fraud, strategically fomenting hysteria and indignation among his restive followers. From his office window, Raskin observes a boisterous mob of Trumpsters advancing on the steps of the Capitol as he prepares to make his way down to the House floor. With he and his colleagues being shepherded to safety as the Capitol is breached and defiled by a legion of renegades; receiving inspiration through the cherished memory of his departed son, Raskin finds comfort, resolve, and renewed commitment as a standard bearer for democracy. PART ONE Chapter 1 *In 2005, Raskin left his profession as a Constitutional law professor to enter the arena of politics, a move that would forge a strong and enduring bond between he and son, Tommy. The author shares anecdotes involving his adolescent son in recapping his successful grassroots campaign for the Maryland State Senate seat in 2006, laying the foundation for a 2016 run for Congress. Raskin’s precocious offspring demonstrated a sensitivity to morality, ethical behavior, and social justice well beyond the norm for one of his tender age. In the span of a decade, Tommy’s humanitarian ideals progressively took on a global perspective, encompassing the marginalized and downtrodden. When Donald Trump’s avowedly racist and xenophobic campaign claimed victory in the 2016 presidential election, as was the case with their fellow contemporaries of liberal democracy, both father and son were stunned by its surrealism. Chapter 2 *While a student at Amherst, Tommy Raskin was diagnosed with OCD and depression, a condition exacerbated by a vicious cycle of alcohol abuse, triggering an episode of deep melancholia. With treatment and medication, on the surface, his condition appeared to stabilize; however, he suffered a relapse during his first year at Harvard Law. Though the inception of Covid-19 was devastating to Tommy and his peers, in the context of social isolation and the suspension of on campus classes, relocating to his parents’ residence afforded the opportunity to renew the day to day father/son intimacy so treasued by both. While Tommy flourished as an animal rights legal intern during the summer of 2022, his relationship with his girlfriend was on a downward spiral, following the all too familiar pattern of prior romantic attachments, with Tommy surrendering to his visceral fear of a potential fatherhood, one in which he would be party to exposing an innocent child to a world where he had experienced so much pain. The fall of 2022 continued to bring a measure of fulfillment to Tommy both academically and intellectually, yet the necessary privation dictated by the pandemic, coupled with its seemingly endless duration, left him in an emotionally fragile state of depression. A father who loved his son unconditionally, is reduced to speculation on what he might have said or done to avert the ultimate act of suicide, and advises his reader that, in retrospect, he would have made a more enlightened and hopeful effort to transcend his fear of broaching the subject with his son. Chapter 3 *During the final week of his life, from the vantage point of his father, girlfriend, friends, and psychiatrist, there was no inkling that Tommy Raskin was contemplating suicide. His adoring and unwitting father embraced and bid him good night for the final time of his son’s truncated life on December 30, 2021. PART TWO Chapter 4 *Enroute to the Capitol on January 6, 2022, Jamie Raskin contemplates his venerated image of Abraham Lincoln, while mentally paralleling the divisions within contemporary America against the dark shadows of a divided union confronting the revered president 160 years prior. *Raskin and his fellow Democrats in the House had scrupulously prepared for a Trump gambit to annul the archaic Electoral College electors in specified states in order to effect a contingent election in the House, where the GOP, although in the minority according to the number of representatives, had a clear advantage in the decisive state count. *Having categorically failed with the courts to rule in his favor on issued challenges of electoral irregularities and voter fraud, striking out in efforts to hector swing state election officials into sullying the vote count, and misjudging the extent to which Mike Pence was willing to run interference for him in perpetuating the “stolen election” conspiracy theory; Donald Trump exercised a provocation totally unprecedented by an American president, one which flew under the radar of the confused and confounded Jamie Raskin and his colleagues. Chapter 5 *Following Mike Pence’s refusal to usurp powers not granted to his office by the Constitution, and a subsequent GOP objection to counting Arizona’s slate of electors for Joe Biden; with the Senate and House in their separate chambers, without warning, the shattering of glass and ramming of doors reverberated throughout the Capitol. After Jamie Raskin and his colleagues were shepherded to safety, while viewing network coverage of the surreal scene on a fellow House member’s ipad, the image most firmly rooted in Raskin’s psyche was that of an insurrectionist spearing a helpless officer of the Capitol police with a pole bearing the American flag. Chapter 6 *After some semblance of order had been restored, and prior to reconvening both seats of Congress to resume the certification process; in view of Trump’s incitement and obvious complicity in the insurrection, the dialogue among House Democrats encompassed bringing impeachment charges and/or prosecuting the case for the Vice President to invoke the 25th Amendment declaring the President unfit to perform the duties of his office. Ultimately, during the wee hours of the morning on January 7, 2020, American democracy’s transfer of power, though not peaceful as intended by the founding fathers, was mandated by the certification of Joe Biden as the legitimate successor to the Presidency, effective with the oath of office on January 20, 2020. Chapter 7 *Raskin rationalized that, while an impeachment conviction would constitute the most obvious route to remove a president from office, the 25th Amendment could potentially elicit less backlash from the GOP. Upon consultation with Speaker Pelosi, the determination was made to exercise both options. As a Constitutional scholar, Raskin was acutely aware that Trump’s attempt to obstruct Congress, in their charge to implement the will of the people via the Presidential certification process, fell well within the parameters for bringing Articles of Impeachment. For the prosecution of President Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection would seek to unequivocally expose its concomitant existential threat to American democracy. At the behest of Speaker Pelosi, Raskin agreed to assume the responsibilities of lead impeachment manager, and immediately set about formulating the selection criteria for his “team of nine”. With Mike Pence’s refusal to play his part in executing the 25th Amendment, impeachment became the sole option left on the table. Chapter 8 *On January 13, with the vote of every Democrat, along with that of Liz Cheney and nine of her fellow Republicans, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump on the grounds of inciting an insurrection on our nation’s Capitol exactly one week prior to the day. In preparation to argue the merits of the case for conviction before the Senate, Raskin had assembled a diverse, competent team of impeachment managers, one accentuated by a breadth of legal background and expertise. A primary focus of the impeachment team was to introduce ghastly real time images of brave, yet grossly outnumbered, Capitol Police being overrun, gassed, and mercilessly beaten by waves of insurrectionists, urged on by the poisonous rhetoric of an unhinged president. Raskin and his team were prepared to present the irrefutable argument that Donald Trump, rather than honor his presidential oath to protect the Constitution, committed the unprecedented sacrilege of unleashing his mob of vandals to ransack the halls of Congress, and consequently place at risk the lives of those public servants within, who were sworn to uphold its precepts. Prior to the Senate impeachment trial, during a televised interview with Jake Tapper of CNN, Raskin experienced catharsis, as he was able to poignantly dedicate the cherished memory of his beloved Tommy through publicly verbalizing a resolve to channel his own energies into the nation’s urgent business of saving our imperiled democracy. Chapter 9 *Accepting his brother’s invitation to visit him in Florida, Raskin was personally challenged to set aside his ambivalence in reconciling a pervading, ever present grief over the loss of his son with an escape to environs frequented by those seeking fun and sun. While his Florida jaunt served as a respite from the daily physical reminders of Tommy’s final hours, he was otherwise immersed in the upcoming prosecution of the Trump impeachment case, becoming invested in the similarities with the President’s tolerance, and even promotion, of riotous violence, whether the venue be Charlottesville, Lansing, or the nation’s capital. After consultation with the impeachment team and a couple of respected outside legal minds, the decision to assume an offensive posture by subpoenaing Trump as a witness was met with overwhelming approval. In his arguments, Raskin planned to connect a three dimensional aspect to the events that transpired on January 6th; (1) a combustible, unrehearsed, spontaneous “riot” conducted by the general population who stormed the Capitol, (2) a violent, organized “insurrection” planned in advance and executed by paramilitary groups loyal to Trump, and (3) an attempted “coup”, schemed by Trump and his co-conspirators, and necessitating the vice president’s cooperation (which fortunately was not forthcoming) in rejecting slates of electors, thereby effecting a contingent election (favorable to Republicans) in the House of Representatives. Chapter 10 * Raskin contemplated the efficacy of secret impeachment ballots in order to shield Senate Republicans who chose to vote their conscience for conviction from party backlash and repercussions, but he yielded to the inevitability that the ayes would be conspicuous by their very silence in the midst of the nays brazenly broadcasting their votes. Given Trump’s denial of incriminating evidence, based on fact, of his role in inciting mob insurrection on the Capitol, and his consequent failure to intervene, Raskin drafted a letter inviting him to formally refute the charges levied against him by testifying under oath. He received an unpolished response from Trump’s lawyers claiming that his invitation was mere grandstanding, and was an implied affront to the Constitutional provisions for impeachment. During the evening prior to Day 1 of the impeachment trial, while rehearsing his introductory speech before the managers, Raskin was overcome emotionally, the recitation of the lines of a poem in his presentation conjuring up the memory of witnessing Tommy’s poetic genius on display. Chapter 11 *On the day of the impeachment trial, Raskin reflected on the precedent setting impeachment of Andrew Johnson, who was responsible for fomenting the decades long suppression of civil rights legislation by sabotaging Reconstruction in the South. Over a century and a half later, Donald Trump would be tried in the Senate for a violation equally reprehensible; that of knowingly and willfully inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol. Following opening arguments, on a procedural vote to determine whether the former president fell under Senate jurisdiction for acts committed while in office, the impeachment trial would proceed by a 56-44 vote margin. Chapter 12 *Raskin made a compelling case that, in the matter of inciting the insurrection, the underlying intent of Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, which was to remain in power by overturning the legitimate 2020 election results, superseded his First Amendment rights. In a coordinated effort, the impeachment team was relentless in hammering home the point that January 6th was premeditated by Donald Trump as a last ditch effort to salvage his presidency. On the eve of closing arguments, there was a building consensus that, by any conceivable measure, the evidence supporting Trump’s conviction was both indisputable and insurmountable. Chapter 13 *While Trump’s lawyers attempted to downplay, as merely commonly used political jargon, Trump’s verbal agitations, such as “fight like hell”, addressed to a visibly belligerent mob, Raskin and his team focused on unmasking the obvious and literal contextual backdrop in which they were delivered. How ironic the cravenness of a false messiah who would mesmerize his blind followers with a stolen election conspiracy, and yet disavow any role in the predictable and violent outcomes which followed. Chapter 14 *Notwithstanding a progressive outcry to call House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, an inveterate Trump sycophant, who pleaded with him to rein in the Capitol rioters, Raskin, with the blessings of Speaker Pelosi, went with his instinct to call GOP Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, whose notes of McCarthy’s frantic conversation with Trump would serve as invaluable testimony against the “inciter in chief”. In his closing argument, Raskin appealed to the senators’ sense of patriotism to transcend partisan loyalty and political self interest. Although falling short of the requisite two thirds majority votes for conviction, the Senate Democrats were joined by seven intrepid Republicans, who broke ranks with their party, willing to sacrifice their political futures by voting per conscience versus expedience. Left with a range of conflicting emotions, from the self-doubt that occurs when hindsight suggests that we might have done some things differently, to the overwhelming and poignant satisfaction and reassurance that he and his team fought the good fight in the cause of American democracy, Raskin was greeted with appreciative adulation, from family, colleagues, constituents, and a large following of his fellow Americans, for selfless devotion to his country during a time of personal bereavement for the loss of his son. Epilogue *A memorial service for Tommy Raskin was held in April, 2021, and it was a fitting tribute for one who made such an impact on life’s global and existential causes during his fleeting and brief time among us. His spirit lives on in those influenced by his humanitarian endeavors, and a growing number of charities and organizations have been established in his name. *Four Capitol police officers were appropriately called as the first witnesses to testify before the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, each giving riveting testimony as embattled personal witnesses that the events on that day constituted unprovoked and unprecedented violence directed against our nation’s Capitol and those charged with its protection. *Whereas the 2020 attempt at overturning the legitimate election results failed, Raskin offers scenarios whereby the 2024 election, through gerrymandering and egregious political maneuvering, can fraudulently usher in a Trump presidency. *Raskin draws a parallel between the revisionism of the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause” fallacy, as rationale for the Civil War, with Trump’s “Stop the Steal” fantasy, embraced by his followers as justification for January 6th. *Raskin concludes with a loving tribute to his son, who was willing to confront the evil, inequity, and injustice in a world he ultimately saw as righteously, equitably, and compassionately redeemable.
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