Cory Booker Forced Democrats to Figure Out Who They Are, and So Far, the Results Aren’t Great!

By Jacob Weindling  |  April 2, 2025 | 2:46pm
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Congress Democratic Party
Cory Booker Forced Democrats to Figure Out Who They Are, and So Far, the Results Aren’t Great!

I will admit that I reenacted the famous Vince McMahon reaction meme throughout Cory Booker’s record-breaking filibuster yesterday. I went to bed feeling nonplussed at another overnight Democratic filibuster and woke up annoyed that Cory Booker was putting forth a big effort without bringing any parliamentary backup with him to make it really hurt the GOP. After I began writing my critique of how the Democrats are not, as many say over and over, “using every tool available to fight back against Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Booker delayed a vote on Trump’s nominee to NATO, becoming one of the few, if any, times a Democrat has actually obstructed Trump’s agenda. Despite what the lying liars who lie to you in the Democratic Party say, objecting to unanimous consent and calling for a quorum are two tools that Tommy Tuberville and Mitch McConnell have long used to success that Democrats ranging from Bernie Sanders to Chuck Schumer to Mark Warner have all refused to even acknowledge this year. There are more tools in their toolkit gathering dust than ones they are actively utilizing. This was a moment that Booker forced on the party.

Then Booker actually delayed a day of Senate business, literally the thing that all the parliamentary critiques are centered around, and I wrote an afternoon update to my morning article, tipping my cap to my new Senate Minority Leader as I moved into the next frame of the meme. As soon as Booker closed in on that racist Strom Thurmond’s record a few hours later, I entered the last frame of the Vince gif and libbed out when he set the new record for longest Senate filibuster. That was a powerful symbolic achievement by Cory Booker, and it is an admirable thing that he did. For the first time in years, the Democratic Party looked good. It looked strong. It looked like it actually believed in something. Booker was passionate and honest throughout his record-breaking achievement that put forth the best case against Donald Trump to date, as well as against the Democratic Party.

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.'”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 1, 2025 at 1:40 PM

“I don’t want a Disney vacation of our history! I don’t a whitewashed history, I don’t want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness” — 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 1, 2025 at 1:46 PM

If you are calling Booker’s accomplishment a meaningless performance, understand that you are missing the point in a sea of people inspired by what Booker said. A performance is only meaningless if it doesn’t have an audience (or for late Vince McMahon-era WWE, an audience of one). Talking to an empty chamber in the middle of the night is very different from talking to a mostly empty chamber in the middle of the day with 350,000 live viewers on YouTube alone. Politics is performance, and giving people a narrative to hold on to and understand politics through is vital. This is the chief failure of the Democratic Party and why this push for popularism among the consultant class is for weak cowards who don’t understand politics. If you don’t plant your feet firmly in the ground somewhere, voters will see that you ultimately stand for nothing.

And Cory Booker planted his feet firmly in the ground yesterday and gave the Democratic Party a rallying cry and an ethos to live by. He is already inspiring even his most craven and cynical cohorts to action, as Adam “please donate to me” Schiff is actually getting off his ass and doing something that only someone with his power can do.

BREAKING: I’m placing a hold on President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney in DC.

For the past few weeks, Ed Martin has been a one-man wrecking ball. Threatening political opponents, firing public servants, and using his office to chill free speech.

His nomination must be blocked.

— Sen. Adam Schiff (@schiff.senate.gov) April 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM

But this goodwill didn’t last very long. As soon as Booker ended his speech to I assume sprint faster than he ever has to the nearest bathroom, his Democratic colleagues demonstrated why he had to give that speech and why he admitted the party had been such a fantastic failure. Not a single Democrat took the profound moment that Booker created to object to unanimous consent, and a big dick toilet salesman’s NATO nomination was fast-tracked by Democrats past tedious Senate procedures that Tommy Tuberville made the Democrats jump through all of last year. These people at their core are cowards, and they proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt by watching the most inspiring thing their party has done in at least half a decade and immediately going back to business as usual. Senate Democrats across the board, minus Cory Booker, have proven themselves incapable of meeting the moment. They are stuck inside a West Wing snow globe forever.

Cory Booker basically told Democrats to look in the mirror and figure out what they really want and who they really are, and 46 Senators all instantly said, “yeah I still suck.” There is no real follow-through from Chuck Schumer and the rest of Democratic leadership today (he is proposing security training for the Signalgate crew though!), proving pretty conclusively that Cory Booker, who has been far from a perfect politician, has more foresight, passion and integrity than the Democratic Party does. If the Democrats do not use this historic moment as a springboard to follow Booker’s lead to actually obstruct the Trump administration and inspire people to act, then everyone from Bernie Sanders to Chuck Schumer to Mark Warner should be primaried out of office as soon as possible so someone more willing to put up a fight, like Cory Booker, can take their place.

 
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