conscious and adviser and somebody that you did discuss politics with a great deal. that s right. tommy was kind of a political savant, a natural kind of a thoroughbred. they were so many political influences in his life. but he was disenchanted, i d say at a very early age with conventional electoral parliamentary politics, the kind of politics that i do. and he really was far more connected to visionary, moral politics and movements for change. sorry to interrupt, this is so interesting, was tommy in a sense may be angry is the wrong word but did he feel that you were misguided in placing yourfaith in running for office, first in maryland but that of course for the us congress and taking your place on those benches amongst all of the politicians who play their games, who perhaps practice
it is in a sense a love letter to your son, tommy and it s also a sort of letter full of love and despair about the current state of american democracy. just to stick with tommy and you speak so movingly and beautiful about them it strikes me that tommy wasn t just your smart, talented, beautiful son, he also had become something of a moral compass for you, a sort of conscious and adviser and somebody that you did discuss politics with a great deal. that s right. tommy was kind of a political savant, a natural kind of a thoroughbred. they were so many political influences in his life. but he was disenchanted, i d say at a very early age with conventional electoral parliamentary politics, the kind of politics that i do.
over the loss of tommy very quickly merged with the trauma of the january six insurrection and attempted coup in the congress of the united states by donald trump and his supporters. as i tell it in this book that i ve written, these two traumas really converged in my life and are inextricably interwoven in my psyche. yeah, i have the book right in front of me, congressman. unthinkable, it s called. it is in a sense a love letter to your son, tommy and it s also a sort of letter full of love and despair about the current state of american democracy. just to stick with tommy and you speak so movingly and beautiful about them it strikes me that tommy wasn t just your smart, talented, beautiful son, he also had become something of a moral compass for you, a sort of conscious and adviser and somebody that you did discuss politics with a great deal. that s right. tommy was kind of a political
to me but there is a conversation i record in the book between tommy and me when i took him to the maryland state senate when i was a senator and he interacted with one of my colleagues who s a brilliant politician but certainly more on the realist machiavellian side of things than tommy. and that was the moment when tommy said to me, he was in seventh grade, i don t think i could do what you do. and i said, what you mean, be a law professor? because that was my main vocation and he said, no, i could something like that but i don t think i could be in politics with people who i fundamentally disagree with about values. tommy was much more interested in movement organising
of isolation and despondency and his depression overcame him. but tommy left us a farewell note which said, please forgive me, my illness won today, look after each other, the animals and the global poor for me. all my love, tommy. he was a poet, he was a playwright, he was a political activist, he was a second year student at harvard law school. the sky was the limit in terms of what he was going to be able to contribute to us but he was drowning in pain and we lost him on the last day of 2020. we have wanted to continue to act in ways that would be befitting his memory and his spirit and it would make him proud of what we are doing.