Booker's history-making speech bumps Thurmond's racist one. That's a win for all. | Opinion
While Booker did not speak for everybody, he spoke for tens of millions of Americans – and I am one – who are shocked to see the second Trump presidency seek to change the nature of our country.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey held the Senate floor for 25 hours and five minutes on Tuesday to rail against the policies and actions of President Donald Trump. The Democratic senator criticized the Trump administration for enacting deep cuts to the federal workforce; turning its back on our longtime world allies; enforcing truculent and legally suspect deportation policies; and threatening cuts to Medicare and Social Security, among other concerns.
He read letters by Americans who had been harmed. He called for unified action to resist Trump and defend democracy.
Booker, who is one of only 12 Black people to have ever served in the U.S. Senate, quoted late civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis, who he said would not sit idle and "just go along with business as usual."
“He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation,” Booker said.
The 55-year-old Booker surpassed the previous record for the longest floor speech, held since 1957, by the late, segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond delivered a filibuster of 24 hours, 18 minutes in an ultimately, and thankfully, unsuccessful effort to block the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
If Booker had done nothing but beat Thurmond's old mark, he'd have done something. Even if one is a Trump fan and sees the senator's broadside as little more than politics, isn't it still better that a history-making piece of American rhetoric is officially about something other than an attempt to continue segregating people based on their skin color?
Cory Booker spoke for millions of frustrated Americans
But Booker's speech was more.
While he did not speak for everybody, he certainly spoke for tens of millions of Americans – and I am one – who are shocked to see the second Trump presidency seek to change the fundamental nature of this country we share, while the Republican-led Congress does nothing.
Led by Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and his Department of Government Efficiency, this transformation is being carried out with maximum contempt for our fellow Americans. It gives weight to the refrain in progressive circles, that with Trump: "The cruelty is the point."
The same day of the senator’s speech, the Trump administration began the process of firing 10,000 federal workers from critical agencies at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including staff with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many of those fired did not find out they had lost their jobs until they went through a security check at their office building and discovered their badges did not work. It must have seemed like a heartless April Fools' joke, except it was no joke. The April 1 mass layoffs were described as a "bloodbath."
So it comes as no surprise that Booker's Senate speech against this type of action went viral – a TikTok livestream drew more than 350 million likes.
Booker connects with people in a genuine way. I saw it firsthand.
Booker’s performance was clearly planned – it had to be, as his staff would have had to prepare their boss for a marathon session where he stood for hours with no bathroom breaks or food.
But having seen Booker interact with folks when he came to Fayetteville, North Carolina, back in the fall of 2020, I think his concern for people is genuine.
The senator campaigned at the Boone Trail shopping center for Joe Biden's presidential campaign and on behalf of former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, who was running for U.S. Congress. He had a friendly, easygoing way and, in my memory, did more listening than talking.
In contrast with Tuesday’s history-making speech, Booker spoke briefly. He talked about the need for healing. It was a message that resonated then and even more so now as we watch the American government pull back from most activities we associate with compassion, from stopping almost all foreign aid, regardless of need, to mass and sometimes indiscriminate deportation of immigrants in a country that once believed it celebrated that population.
Booker has run for president before. Speech sets stage for 2028.
Booker had run for president in the 2020 Democratic primary in a campaign that gained little traction. If his lengthy floor speech is any indicator, he likely intends to run again.
But there seemed to be another motivation behind his viral performance on Tuesday.
Afterward, Booker told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that the fact that Thurmond held the record always "irked" him because Thurmond's speech was given by "someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate."
The poetic aspect of a Black senator now holding the record speaks for itself.
Myron B. Pitts is the opinion editor of The Fayetteville Observer, where this column originally appeared.