Jamie Raskin comes out swinging
It’s been just over a week since President Biden felt compelled to give a speech outside Independence Hall about the very real threat of autocracy America faces at the hands of MAGA Republicans and their self-appointed cult leader who is incapable of believing that he lost an election. Much of the media either failed to air the speech at all or commented about how the president gave a speech with Marines in the background – ignoring that the last four presidents before Joe Biden did the exact same thing.
Public opinion, however, is clearly on President Biden’s side, with over 60% of the country – including a quarter of Republican voters – agreeing that the former guy and his most die-hard supporters are a clear threat to democracy in this country and the peaceful transition of power. It’s also clear that this is an issue for the midterms along with just about everything else that Republicans are on the wrong side of – as Rep. Jamie Raskin took the party to task on the House floor.
“America is a country of individual freedom and the rights of the people to make their own decisions, not having busy body theocrat politicians in state capitols how to make their own decisions about their careers, their lives, their families, and their healthcare,” Raskin berated the GOP – clearly in response to an abortion ban Republicans are touting, but also referencing the war in Ukraine where Republicans are on the side of Putin. This is the messaging we need to go with – that as much as Republicans pretend to be it, it’s really Democrats that are the party of freedom and individual rights – and it’s also why winning in November is more important than ever.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making