When Senator Booker started his quest to disrupt the Senate for "as long as I am physically able" one week ago, most people didn't pay him a lot of mind. After twenty-five hours, they didn't have a choice. Everyone was talking about it. What am I talking about? I'm talking about Cory Booker standing on the Senate floor for over twenty-five hours in a record breaking event. On Monday, March 31st, he took the Senate floor and began a speech condemning this current administration's cruel and inhumane policies. He did not sleep. He did not eat. He did not use the restroom. In the end, It surpassed the previous record set in 1957 by segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act. So it was that Senator Booker started the speech at 7PM on Monday and told us he would use his time to disrupt the normal business of the U.S. Senate as long as he was physically able.
He told reporters that before he started speaking, he had not drunk water since the Saturday before and had not eaten since the Friday before so that he would not have to use the bathroom. Doctors said to achieve what he did, "both the cognitive and physical aspects of his body would definitely be taxed. Just to keep going is mentally draining." That kind of dehydration can raise the risk of developing kidney stones or urinary tract infections. It certainly made him cramp up, likely dizzy and lightheaded. Not sleeping like that while actively making a coherent speech (more on that below) is also just extremely hard. But he did it.
I described the nitty gritty of the physical implications to let you know that a person that goes 25 hours without food, peeing, pooping, sitting; a person that endures all of the above is someone who cares about people, who understands the responsibility that comes with power. I'm grateful to Senate Book for reminding us all what service is truly about.
"In just 71 days, the president has inflicted harm after harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the foundations of our democracy and any sense of common decency. These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate."
I paused writing this to process the fact that it's only been seventy-one days. How can someone do this much damage in so little time?
What was so appealing and amazing about Senator Booker's feat (apart from the actual olympian level endurance) was that he framed all of it not as left or right or Democrat or Republican but as right or wrong. I mean surely, anyone with decency who examines this administration's actions has to see that this is preposterous. Gutting medicaid, medicare and all the social safety nets poor Americans rely on; terrorizing entire communities so much a little girl took her own life after she was bullied about her family's immigration status (they said they would call immigration to take her parents away and she would be left alone); arresting students who protest and deporting them; picking up students randomly and locking them up; banning news agencies who disagree with you from the press room; firing thousands of federal workers who have an unrivaled dedication to public service and rendering critical social and physical infrastructure threatened; the complete and utter disregard for the rule of law; and Jesus, the tariffs...it's endless. These issues should not even be partisan. And so for 25 hours and 5 minutes, Senator Booker made a case of resistance and opposition.
If that's all he did, that would have been enough. But the MOST amazing part was that he broke the record of a man who was so determined to see that people who look like Cory Booker, who look like me, should never get civil rights or basic dignity. And that's what fuels hope, isn't it? That sooner or later (even if later is five decades later) justice will prevail. That before Monday, no one knew Thurmond's name. Now? Everyone remembers him for evil. The Good Book says the memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7). May Strom Thurmond's name continue to rot for generations to come. So it may not feel like it with the abject cruelty of the rich and powerful these days, their day of reckoning will come. God IS a God of justice. He may be slow to anger, but make no mistake, the wicked will never go unpunished.
Senator Booker's speech was not technically a filibuster (which is defined as a "prolonged action in the Senate in order to delay or stop a vote on a legislative action"), it was even more impressive because of an interesting fact. With other filibusters, the Senators usually just say nonsense. If you recall the grandpa on The West Wing show who staged a marathon filibuster to stave off a vote, I believe he just randomly read from a novel. When Mellie did on Scandal, she read The Great Gatsby. In real life, Ted Cruz read Cat in the Hat or something more odd. But Cory Booker wasn't just random, nonsensical talk. It was a coherent speech (25 hours worth) laying out the breakdown of this country and speaking for all the millions of people this band of oligarchs have silenced.
Just amazing.
Love,
I
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