The Cory Booker Speech: Now That’s What I Call Inspiration Porn
In an effort to not derail the progress I’m making with all the anxiety stuff, I’ve chosen not to follow every political happening, especially as reported on social media. I’ve, for the most part, decided that giving attention to the current regime’s treachery broadcasts a message I don’t intend to send—that I will be distracted by hate bait.
So it is with joy that I write about Senator Cory Booker’s commendable, headline-making, record-breaking speech on the Senate Floor. It is not lost on me that he successfully beat the previous record from 1957, which was a grandstanding display of nonsensical hate. (And Ted Cruz’s attempt to block the ACA while reading Dr. Seuss doesn’t get an honorable mention either.)
Cory Booker breaks a 68-year-old Senate record with a 25-hour speech
I can’t always believe that the long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but I find I can usually see where it bends toward love. That takes effort too, don’t get me wrong. But seeing love just comes to me a little bit easier when I’m not focused on the unfairness and inequity that inundates the news. I’m prone to despair that justice is nothing more than a pipe dream, and that despair doesn’t change anything.
Though it wasn’t a procedural filibuster, it was a big deal. It showed me people do care, and to be reminded of that brings me a whole fucking lot of joy. Especially when those people are electeds.
I tuned into the Cory Booker speech on CSPAN2 a couple of times. Once while teaching myself to write with my non-dominant left hand. (I was tired and Booker was inspiring). And again when he was about to break the record (because I wanted to witness the historical moment).
He frequently repeated the words “it’s not left or right, it’s right or wrong” as he made his case, which I wholeheartedly endorse. But what I will not ever forget is his public confession that thus far Democrats had failed, that he had failed, and that the Senate had a responsibility to provide oversight which it was currently failing to do. All while his voice shook and I worried his body would collapse.
God do I know that feeling. The difference being it takes him 25 hours to get there, and it takes me 25 seconds. To whom much is given though.
If I could jump up and raise an empowered fist while whooping à la Arsenio Hall, I would. My longstanding gripe with the Senate is that its members have been getting paid handsomely to not do their job. Of course, I never expected them to admit it, but Senator Cory Booker did, and that kind of introspection takes ovaries.
“Booker wiped away tears and placed his hand over his heart as fellow Democrats cheered at the end of his 25-hour, 4-minute speech. Others were seen crying and some rushed to hug the visibly exhausted and emotional Booker.”
Anyway, time will tell if his fellow Senators are moved to do what their oaths require, but as a citizen I am grateful to Booker and his staff for reminding me that hopelessness is not the only choice. I am sharing my opinions on this historical story so that the media understands hope still gets clicks and shares.
After Booker’s speech, some chucklenut brought forward a motion to confirm a cabinet nominee, and the juxtaposition was chef’s-kiss perfection. The business-as-usual goings on hung over that old, white Senator like a fart in church after Booker had spent an impassioned 25 hours and 4 minutes outlining just how neglectful business-as-usual approaches were in this moment.
I swear I heard laughing in the chamber when that was next up. The Cory Booker speech ended in primetime. It was a moment well planned.