The Democrats strike back
Amidst the calls from both media and a number of Democratic constituents that Democrats weren’t doing anything about the plight that we’re in, Sen. Cory Booker took the Senate floor on Monday night and spoke for 25 hours, refusing to yield his time to the GOP.
He made history for the longest occupation of the Senate floor, a title previously held by notorious bigot Strom Thurmond, who used his time to filibuster a civil rights bill in 1957, but he did more than that as he denounced the evil and wanton cruelty of the Trump administration, telling stories about the lives that have been upended by Elon Musk’s reckless firings of federal workers, and even their efforts to erase history.
There are those who will say that the speech Booker gave on the Senate floor didn’t solve anything or prevent anything, but they wouldn’t actually have to give out that kind of disclaimer if it were actually true. The fact that Booker is going to likely have a number of viral moments from the speech – particularly due to just the stamina of staying at it for more than a day, shows that Democrats are very much still in this fight – and absolutely believe in the words that were said, or else a number of Booker’s colleagues would not have joined him on the floor.
At a time when Donald Trump’s popularity is sagging and he’s trying desperately to get his thunder back by making headlines with ominous policies, Democrats are having a good news cycle that makes clear where they stand when it comes to both our personal freedoms and protecting the social security and Medicare that we’ve long paid into.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making