Cory Booker Just Told Us: It’s Up To Us

My friends and I had an impromptu watch party as Senator Cory Booker didn’t just break a record, he performed a massive service for the country: his stamina and determination and incredible eloquence at any time, much less after speaking for twenty-five hours straight, all in service of calling out the fascist takeover of America, the people who were being hurt, the injustice that was being done…

I was crying at the end along with everyone else.

But as I watched this historic moment unfold (alerting my family to make sure they didn’t miss it), there was something pinging my brain about all of it. There was the obvious attention-commanding oration, the incredible physical feat itself, the historic nature of it—a Black senator beating the record of a racist white senator in the past who had filibustered in service of segregation—the pure symbolism that was everything that’s ever been good about America…

Cory Booker reminded us of what America can be.

And there was the fact that his incredible 25-hour speech was a full-throated rebuke of the Trump/Musk coup, giving voice to the incredible frustration and anger of so many people, and not just Americans.

All of that was very clear and important and the kind of leadership the people have been hungry for…

And yet, there was something deeper Senator Booker was doing. Something less obvious but really important. So important, he told us directly what it was.

Again and again, Booker told us: I didn’t do this alone. He had staffers who, with only a few days notice, constructed an epic amount of material for his planned 25-hour speech. He emphasized how much he was inspired and supported by the late civil rights icon, John Lewis, starting and ending the speech with Lewis’s signature line of getting in good trouble. His fellow Senators (some of them) supported him with breaks by asking questions. At the end, as he broke the record and kept going for another hour, they told him how proud they were of him, how impressed. The applause at the end was hearty and heart-felt.

And then Senate Democrats immediately allowed a quisling Republican to shove through a Trump appointee with unanimous consent.

That is the deeper message of what happened last night, something Booker understood full well, and something that I only kind of grasped the night before, when he started, and I thought: why is he alone?

It’s fantastic for Cory Booker to start the absolute shutting down of the Senate until democracy is restored—it is absolutely poignant and historic and inspiring for him in particular to be the one to break a racist fascist’s record while protesting the racist fascists taking over the country.

There is no reason every Democratic Senator couldn’t have followed his incredible feat with a sequence of similar speeches, one after another, shutting down normal business altogether, literally taking back their Congressional power from the coup Booker was protesting.

Instead, they told him they were proud of him and then let Republicans continue to shove through Trump appointees without objection.

HERE’S THE THING: Booker knew this. Of course he did. He works with these people, he sees what’s happening, and he’s like “Y’all aren’t going to do anything, but I am… and I’m going to tell the American people that they’re on their own. That the Senate will not save them. But the true power resides in the people, that everyone can do something, and that is what needs to happen now.”

He told stories of individual Americans—the ones that were hurting, the ones that were heroes, the ones like John Lewis that we all, including Booker, looked up to—but he was clear that it was up to all of the American people to stop this fascist coup. And that he knew we were up to the task.

Because a racist fascist had tried to stop someone like Booker from even living in a non-segregated neighborhood or going to a non-segregated school, much less becoming Senator… and Thurmond failed.

And Booker was here in the Senate, breaking his record.

But as Booker said, this wasn’t because of one hero or one event, it was all the events and all of the people, every single one who, like John Lewis, did not and would not stand by in the face of injustice and tyranny.

Booker said he didn’t know what John Lewis would do today. He didn’t know what actions Lewis would take in the face of this fascist coup. But he knew Lewis would do something.

This was Booker’s something. And it was glorious and inspiring and incredibly meaningful.

But this was a United States Senator, one of the most powerful people on the planet, telling us that he cannot do this alone. Through his impressive action, he was directly calling out Trump/Musk and the Republicans enabling them but also indirectly calling out his fellow Democrats for standing by. For not doing what was within their power to do.

Maybe Booker hoped his example would spur his fellow Senators to take more substantive action. One can never know the impact of one’s actions, one can only stand strong for what is right and the impact will be what it is. Booker knew this and even spoke to it: “The mission was really to elevate voices of Americans to tell some of their really meaningful stories, very emotional stories, and to let go and let god.”

But he directly said to the American people: if you do something, you have the power to stop this.

And he is right.

No one is saving us, not even him. But he’s doing his part.

Every one of us has to get in the fight.