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Booker Today During His Ongoing 22+ Hour Filibuster
(i.imgur.com)
Booker: "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"
Honestly the first actual sign of resistance from within the Senate chamber.
Resistance seems like a bit much, can we compromise and agree it's the first sign that a Democratic senator has a pulse?
Credit should be given where due: Sen. Booker is about to make history in less than an hour, breaking the record for the longest filibuster in US history.
Edit: He did it! Now it's on every American and person around the world to resist the Trump administration.
That's fair enough, I absolutely agree that his resolve is notable and his voice should be elevated, but will we see that happen in reality?
Booker is a staunch zionist. He should be in prison for supporting the killing of Palestinians.
Okay buddy we'll at least he wants to keep the fascism over there.
I don't think that's better...
That seems like a matter of perspective
Yeah, the perspective of those who see foreigners as humans, and the perspectives of fascist white nationalists like you and Booker
You don’t think it’s better that the country with most powerful military and bases all over the world doesn’t fall to fascism before Israel?
Even if you don’t live in America it seems pretty obvious that is, in fact, better
The point was that the USA is already fascist when it come to the Palestinians, and Booker is in full support of that, so now, i don't see how its "obviously better" that Corey Booker wants to do the Holocaust, but only on foreigners.
Ahhh that makes sense, I didn’t infer it like that at first
Thanks for your contribution, senator McCarthy. Good to know that the people opposed to the position of "full support for fascist genocide is fine, so long as it's being done to foreigners" are the ones who lack empathy and want to cause division.
Yes, that's the only reason you could have had your comment removed, senator McCarthy...
Standards are low.
He stopped a full day of business in the Senate. I've never been a huge Booker fan but I gotta admit, not only is it a pretty impressive feat but this is exactly the kind of thing we need from them right now.
No, we need their party to stop bombing Palestinian civilians. In no way is booker, who is a staunch zionist, promising to change that.
A full day of ... nothing. The senate, and congress as a whole don't really do anything these days. They pass maybe one consequential bill every 2 years and then go back to sitting on there asses because the filibuster prevents them from doing anything besides "bipartisan" shit like sending weapons to Israel.
All the bad shit that's been happening is coming from trumps desk with no approval or input from congress.
Congress, republican controlled*, has chosen not to act, which many view as a tacit approval.
Hey now give him credit where credit is due, he at least made sure to wait until after the spending bill. That way he didn't interfere with project 2025 at all.
What a thoughtful soul
I think a lot of people on both sides are still living in a weird fantasy bubble that we have "two sides" and they're actually fighting each other.
Yes, some outliers are probably genuine, but we're all getting played if we think this shit isn't designed to make a select group of people wealthy no matter who wins or who speaks out or what the political landscape looks like. You don't leave trillions of dollars up to chance and the votes of uninformed or uninterested voters.
The first sentence is true, the second sentence maybe but I don't know. That's why I am saying this is the first sign of resistance in the chamber, because up til now it was a lot of humming and hawing about how bad this is but otherwise nodding along as if it was business as usual, but this could be one of a future series of acts of resistance. It's easy to write off all Democratic senators, but this is the first tangible delay to the Republican majority's business. He brought to the spotlight many important messages in front of many people, about taxing the rich, giving affordable healthcare etc. (unlike Ted Cruz's timewaster filibuster that was reading Green Eggs and Ham and stuff).
So many people seem to miss the point. Booker essentially became a streamer for a day except with usually boring Senate stuff, and was able to get at least a few people energized about important topics on how to resist Trump and cause "good trouble". He pushed his health and stamina to an admirable extent for a politician. It's far more newsworthy than Democrats waving little handboards around.
I get what you're saying but to me this act seems completely consistent with the standard Democrat mo of not taking action when it really matters, while acting when it doesn't. The mo that creates the impression of doing things by only doing an insufficient amount. Case in point - Booker's action did not take place a week ago during the CR vote. Doing it then would have really mattered. If it did, I'd have been shocked. We discussed this with some friends when the rumor came down that Chuck is going to vote for the bill. So now I can't shake the feeling this act is just meant to paper over that inaction which got many Democrat voters very angry at the party.
Democrats in Congress are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I get it. But what the senator did is something that would inspire individuals to organize into groups to put more pressure on the administration and its allies. Booker put a part of himself on the line, got his message out there.
After this is the part where the Democratic minority of the Senate, conceivably, will fail to follow through and organizing together and amongst their constituents and putting pressure on red state senators. At least I heard Booker was doing something along those lines in NJ this weekend. If they can force a 60%-80% productive work week in the Republican Senate that is something.
What did he resist? There wasn’t a bill he was filibustering. This was a performance.
Stop being satisfied with performance.
I already said downthread that it was a record-breaking performance. It got eyeballs on an important message in the same way as what Sanders and AOC are doing in their tour around their country.
Dem Senators' performance has been a big pile of disappointment during 2025 so far, hence I'm calling this a first sign of resistance because we have had essentially nothing noteworthy prior to that and in the chamber since Sanders' organizing efforts are outside of that, while his and other Senators' efforts to bring bills forward and grill Trump appointees have seemed ineffectual, and Schumer led a big letdown with the CR bill.
It's not everything we need, it's not enough on its own, but it's not nothing either. I don't know how many people I have to say this to.
If it’s not nothing, then show me the win. Show me what we gained.
A WI supreme court Musk defeat, millions of views who have heard of "good trouble" and the whole plan to cut services to fund billionaire tax cuts, increased turnout for Apr 5 protests (50501), a 500pt Lemmy thread, so on and so forth. The action is a seed that would bear fruit if Americans and others actually care for it, be part of the solution and not act all nihilist.
We're doing our part in Canada. We are out protesting, boycotting Tesla, boycotting many other American goods and not travelling to the US. Time to do yours, and not use your ineffectual Senate as an excuse for inaction. Call your Dem and Repub senators, and even if they don't listen, then take to the streets, see eye-to-eye with your fellow statesman and make change happen. This is a moment that Americans have to seize upon, not just for the 40-odd old geezers in the Dem Senate Caucus to do.
No, how is this a win as a result of this “filibuster?”
The immediate effect is that Senate business has been delayed by an entire day. From within the Senate as well, if there's ever going to be a tone shift with Republicans in Congress wrestling back control from the President, it would be now, looking at how Trump declared a emergency against a trade deficit today.
Like I said already, the most significant benefits of this speech will come by Senators and Americans at-large following through, if that can happen. Your line of questioning is like watering a seed and wondering where the fruit is right away.
He made a loyalty pledge to Israel during this performance, and defended the genocide. I don’t want him to follow through.
Have you seem what Sanders is doing?
Yes, but most his effectual action seems to occur outside the Senate chamber, rallying crowds together with Ocasio-Cortez.
Have you seen the bills he's drafted? Dude does both.