The Daily Escape:
On August 29, 1957, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) completed 24 hours and 18 minutes of filibuster on the Senate floor against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The bill passed two hours after the filibuster and was signed into law by President Eisenhower.
On Tuesday night, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) exceeded that record for a one-person Senate floor speech. His is not technically a filibuster, because he didn’t do it as part of the discussion of a particular bill. But he outlasted the white supremacist from the 1950s.
On the floor of the Senate, Booker invoked the late Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who had been one of the original Freedom Riders challenging racial segregation in 1961. In 1965, Lewis had his skull fractured by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama as he marched with protesters on their way to Montgomery to demand their voting rights be protected.
Booker reminded us that Lewis was famous for telling people to “get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Booker said that in the years since Trump took office, he has been asking himself, “How am I living up to his words?” He was majestic and poignant, plain-spoken and fiery. He gave Democrats a reason to hope about the future of the resistance in the Democratic Party.
Rather than whining about “being the minority” and “having no legislative power,” he used his only political asset: His voice.
Senator Booker did what desperate Democrats have been begging their leaders to do: Speak up, make good trouble, raise a ruckus, and rally the faithful! It was his finest moment. Sen. Booker ended his speech with these words:
“This is a moral moment. It is not left or right. It is right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble. Madame President, I yield the floor.”
The above was delivered after 25 hours of non-stop “on-his-feet” filibustering. An obviously exhausted Booker none-the-less delivered an emotional and powerful closing. (See ABC News / YouTube): Cory Booker ends record-breaking Senate speech with tribute to late John Lewis.
From JVL:
“To those saying Booker’s filibuster didn’t achieve anything, I agree. It was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. It was a call.
And calls can mean something, even if they don’t “achieve” results.
It meant something to know that Booker has seen the same things we’re seeing and that these things made an impression on him, too.
It meant something to know that Booker understands the moment.
It meant something to know that there are more of us than we believed.
It meant something to know that others are willing to stand up, too.”
More:
“That’s what Cory Booker’s filibuster was about. He realized that in order to get people to pay attention, he had to do something extraordinary. There are only a hundred people on the planet who are allowed to filibuster. He is one of them. So he used the platform he had.”
By daring to step into a leadership role in the Democratic resistance, his historic effort should motivate other Democrats to engage in bolder, more aggressive pushback than has been the status quo in Congress to date.
This is necessary because there’s a palpable level of agitation and discontent across America, and other than Bernie and AOC, Democrats are not tapping into it. Our politicians shouldn’t be on listening tours, they should be stirring up the populace, showing a path forward. And there is a demand for it. The Hill reported that: (emphasis by Wrongo)
“More than 350 million people liked Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) floor speech on TikTok live, as the senator approached 25 hours of holding the floor in the Senate chamber.”
Democratic politicians must leave DC, where they say they have almost no power, and return to their districts and stir up the public. Have rallies. Otherwise, everybody’s going to just go on with their own life until we’re living in the American equivalent of Hungary.
Like Booker, all Democrats need to tap into the anger Americans are feeling. Show the Republicans that the country isn’t behind them. We have to force the issue; they have to own the consequences of their actions.
Trump’s incompetence at governing has to be highlighted every day. Right now, Dems aren’t making Trump’s incompetence the main issue. They are reacting to the latest tariff outrage.
Booker has stepped up. People don’t care if it’s technically a filibuster. He has held the floor for more than 24 hours to highlight Trump-Musk wrongdoing. He has spoken words on the Senate floor that we’ve needed to hear. He has mobilized a majority of Democratic Senators. Courage is contagious.
We need to rally against the nihilism and cruelty of Trump’s authoritarian moment.
This can be the turning point if Democrats must whip up the voters to disrupt the tsunami of destruction Elon and Trump have begun.
Let’s have more of this.
