Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) warned against threats to democracy and freedom related to the upcoming presidential election at a Sept. 13 Georgetown University event.
Raskin, joined by Sanford J. Ungar, director of the Georgetown University Free Speech Project, condemned what he views as a rise in authoritarian rhetoric in the United States. The discussion focused on the upcoming Nov. 5 presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Touching on the history of democracy in the United States and the current state of U.S. politics, Raskin also called for reforms that included ending the Electoral College, in which a slate of electors vote for a candidate based on the popular vote in each state.
Comparing Trump to authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Raskin stressed the role of democracy in protecting freedom.
“The founders of America knew that democratic freedom under a constitutional government was the exception and would be the exception,” Raskin said at the event. “Most people have lived for most of human history under dictators and madmen, people like Putin and Trump and Orbán. That’s been the fate of humanity.”
“There is no democracy without freedom, but there also is no freedom without democracy. It doesn’t guarantee it even within democracy. You have to fight for your freedom, but Vladimir Putin and the autocrats are not going to defend anybody’s freedom, anybody’s liberty. The dictators will always trample your freedom,” Raskin added.
As Ungar shifted the discussion toward the 2024 election, Raskin said the current Republican Party is increasingly authoritarian.
“The political scientists have told us what the hallmark characteristics are of an authoritarian or fascist political party or tendency,” Raskin said. “One, they don’t accept the outcome of democratic elections that don’t go their way. Two, they embrace or they refuse to disavow political violence as an instrument for obtaining or maintaining any political power. Three, they are organized in an authoritarian cult of personality around a charismatic, or allegedly charismatic, figure.”
“And then four, because they have no real plans that they’re willing to submit to the people for debate and discussion, they thrive on scapegoating, racism, antisemitism, gay bashing, immigrant bashing and so on,” Raskin added.
Highlighting President Joe Biden’s comments on Republican extremism, Raskin said the party has shifted away from President Abraham Lincoln and Republican opposition to the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing party in the 1800s.
“They got mad at our great President Joe Biden when he said there were semi-fascist currents running through the Republican party, but I’m sorry, if the shoe semi-fits, you semi-wear it,” Raskin said. “That’s what they’ve become. They’ve taken Lincoln’s party of freedom and union, anti-Know Nothing, anti-conspiracy theory, anti-what we would call propaganda and disinformation, and they’ve turned it into this cult.”
Raskin also said he believed most Americans do not support Trump’s campaign platform.
“The vast majority of the country still rejects authoritarianism and that kind of derangement,” Raskin said. “I think the vast majority of the country is pro-choice, it’s pro-environment, it’s pro-labor, it’s pro-freedom and it’s pro-democracy.”
In discussing democratic reforms, Raskin called for the abolition of the Electoral College, asserting that the popular vote ensures everyone’s vote counts.
“We’ve had five popular vote losers in America become president, twice in this century alone in 2000 and 2016,” Raskin said. “I think the vast majority of American people think we should be electing the president just by having an election and seeing who gets the most votes rather than this convoluted, rickety system where it all comes down to a handful of states, six or seven states, instead of everybody’s vote counting equally everywhere in the country.”
Finishing the conversation on free speech in democracies, Raskin said people instead of the government should counter lies, highlighting the Harris campaign’s debunking of claims Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
“The only answer to the profusion of lies is that we get people figuring them out and answering them and debunking them,” Raskin said. “And what’s joyful about this presidential campaign right now is people having fun debunking all the lies about immigrants eating cats and dogs and all that kind of stuff. People have begun to turn it around and expose the outlandishness, the absurdity and the derangement of these lies.
“What is the alternative? The government will decide what’s a lie and what’s a truth? I don’t think so, that’s not going to work. What solution do we have other than people telling the truth to debunk the lies?” Raskin added.
