Can someone explain to me what Corey Booker’s filibuster accomplished?
The main thing that seems to be talked about is that it broke a record set by a racist. But I’d like to know more about what was filibustered and if this has more than a delaying impact.
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Can someone explain to me what Corey Booker’s filibuster accomplished?
The main thing that seems to be talked about is that it broke a record set by a racist. But I’d like to know more about what was filibustered and if this has more than a delaying impact.
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It wasn’t a filibuster. There was no bill on the floor.
Attention (non-derogatory).
A spark.
Nothing was filibustered. It was technically a filibuster but didn’t block a vote as filibusters traditionally have.
I honestly have had very mixed feelings about it. I found it to be a somewhat empty, performative gesture, and I am not someone who likes empty, performative gestures.
But at the same time, I have to give him credit that he energized people. It seems to me that, in an environment where no one cares about realities and everyone is going off of hype and vibes, this generated some really good hype and vibes.
Yes, I wish people didn’t choose style over substance, but since they do, I’m glad that some democrat finally gave the crowd the show they wanted to see.
And after all, when we keep saying we want democrats to be as good at “messaging” as the GOP, isn’t this exactly what we’re asking for?
It was a stunt that worked. I liked it. I appreciated it.
He gave a lot of people hope, people who needed it.
Senate time is usually pretty precious too, and now the term is going to be one whole day shorter. But Trump is ignoring congress and doing things without legislation anyway, so that doesn’t matter as much right now.
Also note yesterday was an Election Day in many parts of the country. Perhaps some people got out and voted, who wouldn’t have otherwise.
But hope was the main thing.
It was a response to all of the people shouting at Democrats to “do something.”
That was something.
Did it do anything? No.
Was it in any way meaningful? No.
Will it in any way hamper Trump? No.
But it’s Something™. Hopefully that will mean we get fewer questions demanding that we do Something™.
The problem is, as we have stated repeatedly in this sub, voters didn’t give Democrats any power, so we can’t do anything to stop Trump.
Shout out to disillusioned Democrats and their supporters upset that the party has seemingly rolled over on their bellies and surendered to Trump? A move to take over as Senate party leader after the ’26 elections (assuming Chuck’s ego allows that)? Corey didn’t do his 25 hour speech (as others have noted, not a fillibuster) on his own without a plan.
He broke Strom Thurmond record. I think that’s kinda cool. That guy sucked.
Americans are asleep at the wheel of their democracy likely failing. It was meant exclusively to draw attention from other law makers (“remember you’re here for a reason, don’t vote against things you are opposed to just because Trump said so.”) and Americans (“America first” clearly means “Trump first.”).
Energized the base.
Stole the news cycle for an entire day.
Broke The record of a hateful segregationist.
It got some attention—we’ll see if it breaks through meme-wise in the social media sphere
More importantly, it delayed senate business for over a day: more of that, please, anything to obstruct the fascist agenda
Did you watch it?
To people saying this was performative: do you not know how politics works? A big part of it is getting attention and getting your message and ideas out there. AKA it’s a performance.
Of course you can’t be ONLY performance, but performance is the first step. Trump knows this and won. And it’s time for democrats to stop thinking that all they’ve got to do is have good policy ideas. They’ve got to perform to get votes. Then they can actually pass their policies.
25 hours and 4 minutes of pride and hope. Destroyed the history of a racist segregationist and child rapist. I’d say a lot! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼💙🗽💙🗽
It wasn’t a filibuster, it was just a speech in the Senate. The last longest speech record was held by a racist man giving a 24 hour long rant about why he opposed the civil rights act and integration. So it is pretty significant that the record was broken by a person of color.
I tuned in and out for the duration of his speech, but every time I tuned in he was saying something meaningful or passionately speaking or reading a letter from a constituent concerned with what’s been happening. One of my state senators joined for a question to him.
While it may seem performative, I really think it taking all the news headlines for the day and showing up everywhere was really significant in getting a message out there that what is happening is not okay and, like Sen Booker said, it isn’t a left or right thing, it’s right or wrong.
Attention.
For the first time in awhile, I didn’t spend all day hearing about stupid shit the Trump administration did today.
I mean, did it do anything practical? No. Is it something I would have done? No. But does it seem to have given a spark to the left temporarily and finally given us something positive to talk about for a change? Yes. For that reason alone I’m glad he did it. Complaining about Trump won’t win elections. We’ve learned that the hard way.
The filibuster is a way for the minority party to resist. We want the democrats to do more to push back against Republican authoritarianism, and it’s more than most are doing.
He actually used the filibuster as intended too. He put some actual effort and dedication into it compared to the Republicans in previous years who just initiated it and walked out to go on a vacation on our dime.
Especially in the era of Trump, attention is an extremely valuable resource. Considering the crazy shit happening on the daily in our country, the fact that you’re talking about it means Booker accomplished his goal. It broke through.
A black man broke the record for longest floor speech in Senate history, previously held by Strom Thurmond in an attempt to filibuster and delay the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Outside of that, as the top comment suggests, “Attention (non-derogatory)”
Middle finger to Republicans.
Look man, I’m with you, but unfortunately the country seems to be full of people who mainly look to politics as a source of entertainment. We can hope to change that in the long run, but in the short run I think we should applaud any Democrats who manage to get sustained attention and positive media coverage.
What I have been told is that he “energized the Democratic party” by “protesting everything”. I have been unable to get anything more specific than that. I’ve had several people lie to me about something he didn’t do, but other than that nothing.
Corey Booker participated in a filibuster?
The left: Democrats need to do things!
Booker: Ok, I’ll step up.
The left: What did that accomplish?
There’s no fucking winning vs this circular firing squad bullshit.
Basically if everyone did what he did it would halt the government from being able to pass bills
It was purely symbolic, but symbolic power is pretty much all the DNC has right now. It probably didn’t accomplish anything, but at least he did… something.
Put him in prime position to lead the party
Can someone explain to me what a Bernie Sanders rally accomplishes?
You seem to want some sort of numerical benefit, so imagine this:
Ideas are swayed by social media these days. Things like TikTok and Instagram use a lot of 30 second videos. How many good 30 second videos do you think you could mine from Cory Booker doing a 25 hour, history making filibuster? We’ll see new clips from this for months. Years, as things he talks about become more topically relevant.
Blew off steam, but didn’t present one alternative proposal for the Democrat party moving forward. Meanwhile, though I may think it premature, Tim Kaine probably did more reaching across to Rand Paul. Trump tariffs have been in effect for years with respect to China however, and to this point there doesn’t appear to be major blowback. I’m for taking a wait and see approach right now
For a long, long time, politics has been performance. This was a performance of resistance that was needed. It demonstrated democratic resistance (at a point when the party is otherwise spineless) and it engaged members of the base who listened to anything he said. There is the hope, of course, that the one act of resistance will spawn others too.