Until today Cory Booker He was a politician with a certain predicament in the US, but away from the great headlines of the international press. Democratic Senator for New Jersey and Exalcalde de Newark, in 2019 launched A campaign to become a White House candidate that ended up withdrawing shortly after. Now Booker is known for more that has earned him the attention of the foreign press: he has pronounced The longest speech in the history of the US Senate.
Standing before his lectern, with a couple of glasses of water and without any chair where to sit (he requested to be removed to avoid temptations), the Democratic Senator spoke and spoke for more than 25 hours about the dangers of the Government of Donald Trump. It may seem a simple anecdote, but its gesture says more about how the Trumpism the Democratic Party that of the Booker itself.
Until the legs endure. His initiative is shared or not, Cory Anthony Booker has to recognize something: he has gone head -on from the beginning. On Monday at seven in the afternoon he took the floor in the upper house, the voice was clarified and warning To the rest of the legislators what their plans were: “I raise myself with the intention of altering the normal functioning of the US Senate as long as I can physically.” In other words, until the legs endured.
And how much did you talk? Except for the Brief pauses What he did while his Democratic colleagues asked him questions, Booker kept talking until after eight in the afternoon of the next day. The Guardian Precise that his intervention lasted 25 hours and four minutes, more than a full day of oratory during which the senator read dozens of cardshe threw notes, stirred a copy of the Constitution, gestured, cried out and jumped from the emotional tone to the exhibition, with some joke included to the colleagues of the Senate. Everything while his voice was getting more and more hoarse.
A speech (and a good limp). In Your chronicle, The Telegraph He explains that, although Bookers was able to take advantage of his companions’s questions to rest his throat, it was not at any time to the bathroom. Apart from the annotations and letters he carried, the only thing he had at hand to endure the guy was a couple of water vessels. Later he himself explained that had prepared for days, fasting and refraining from drinking liquids from the previous night to avoid urgencies. Neither that preparation nor the movements he made to maintain the circulation in his legs, prevented him from ending up limbing of the lectern.
And all that … why? Although Bookers stretched his turn everything he could and monopolized the attention of the upper house for more than 25 hours his intention was not to obstruct the activity of the Senate, which is precisely what has been sought On other occasions With marathon speeches and tricks “Filibusteras”. On the contrary. When Booker took the floor, he had not provided law votes and if something delayed it was an initiative of his own party to repeal Trump’s tariffs.
The goal of the Democrat was another: launching a long, sound (and above all media) attack on Trump’s government. During the 25 hours after the lectern, Booker denounced the republican’s plans to cut Medicaid and Medicare, charged against the “damage inflicted” by Trump to American democracy, spoke of inflation, economic chaos, the role of Musk … and read letters of people with “heartbreaking” stories related to the Trumpism. “It is not about left or right. It is the right or the incorrect,” The senator dispatched Just before putting an end to her long speech: “Mrs. President, give the word.”
Beyond Booker. Booker’s gesture, which ended around 40 feet democrats and an outbreak of applause and chemist from party partners and a public chopped by the curiosity of seeing how much the senator could endure, is important for his career as a legislator; but also for the Democratic Party itself. After all, it arrives at a complicated moment for the formation, which after the defeat of Kamala Harris at the polls and Trump’s return to the White House have suffered Leadership problems and to connect with your bases.
“The party is still catatonic and the election of the National Democratic Committee showed a line of continuity where the main criticism has been the way to communicate,” I commented recently to The observer Victoria Murillo, professor at Columbia University. A month ago the CNN made A poll which shows that the popularity of the Democratic Party has fallen to historical minimums and a good part of its members believe that its leaders must face Trump.
With his record discourse Booker has also managed to monopolize holders and strain his criticism against Trump in the United States and abroad. Another managed to the Democrats in a Care Economy dominated by him Trumpism.
Breaking Thurmond’s record. Booker’s gesture has a symbolic value for another reason: he has managed over 60 years by a South Carolina senator.
On that occasion the objective was very different: its author, Strom Thurmond, recognized segregationist, intended to obstruct the civil rights law of 1957. “He tried to stop the rights I defend”, recalled yesterday Booker, which is also The first black senator of the state of New Jersey, remembering the trick Filibustera of Thurmond. “But I’m not here for his speech. I am here despite his speech. I am here because, no matter how powerful it was, the people were even more.”
Images | Gage Skidmore (Flickr) 1 and 2