Rep. Jamie Raskin speaks at the Shut Down the Coup Rally held March 10, 2025, on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. (Wikimedia Commons/G. Edward Johnson)
by John Dear
This week on "The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast," John Dear speaks with Rep. Jamie Raskin, a strong voice and advocate for democracy, truth and nonviolence. He represents Maryland's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Raskin led the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and he served on the committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
Before that, Raskin was a state senator in Maryland, where he helped abolish the death penalty and gain marriage equality. Before that, he was a professor of constitutional law at American University for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including The New York Times bestseller Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, about the death of his beloved son, Tommy, a week before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
"We're in the fight of our lives and have been since the beginning of this nightmare," Raskin said on the podcast. "But people are galvanized and mobilizing all across the country. Where would we be without the No Kings marches?"
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"Democracy is a project, an unfinished draft, and is always moving forward. Democracy and voting rights are always either shrinking or expanding," Raskin added. "We've got to get back on the growth track for democracy. Democracy gives us the chance for common sense to prevail and the best moral instincts to prevail. The whole Constitution is under attack, and we need the whole people to defend it. Democracy is the system that relies on nonviolent expression."
