I woke up yesterday to heartening news: the liberal candidate had won the race for Wisconsin’s high court, and won it handily, despite the twenty-five million dollars spent by Elon Musk to support her opponent. (Actually, that is an inaccurate statement–she won, at least partly, thanks to Musk’s obscene financial support of her opponent.) And although Democrats lost the special races in Florida, they vastly over-performed in those deep Red districts.
Cory Booker had just stepped down from making the longest recorded speech in Senate history–a speech in which he laid out the myriad dangers posed by a lawless and enthusiastically corrupt administration.
News of these events came as civic activism has continued to rise. Town halls across the country have been filled with angry Americans. As I write this, a nationwide protest warning the administration to keep its Hands Off our governing institutions and constitutional order is scheduled for this Saturday, April 5th. That event will join an unprecedented number of prior protests: the Harvard Crowd Counting Consortium reports that “in 2025 our research shows that street protests today are far more numerous and frequent than skeptics might suggest.” In fact, “since 22 January, we’ve seen more than twice as many street protests than took place during the same period eight years ago.”
There’s a tendency to discount the impact of these gatherings, but they are extremely important: not only do they offer “aid and comfort” to citizens who might otherwise consider themselves alone in their righteous anger, research confirms that such events make both participants and onlookers much more likely to vote.
I’m not aware of any research documenting the effect of lengthy and impassioned Senate speeches, but it certainly seems that the incredible performance by Cory Booker on the Senate floor should resonate with the millions of Americans who are disheartened and terrified by the daily disasters caused by this insane administration–and evidently it did. The Hill reported that more than 350 million people had liked Sen. Cory Booker’s floor speech on TikTok live as he approached 25 hours, and according to the Washington Post, before he was through, his speech had been liked on TikTok 400 million times.
Those are stunning–and heartening– numbers.
There was a lot to like in Booker’s oration, as Heather Cox Richardson reported. Booker began by invoking John Lewis’ admonition to make “good trouble.”
Standing for the next 25 hours and 5 minutes, without a break to use the restroom and pausing only when colleagues asked questions to enable him to rest his voice, Booker called out the Trump administration’s violations of the Constitution and detailed the ways in which the administration is hurting Americans. Farmers have lost government contracts, putting them in a financial crisis. Cuts to environmental protections that protect clean air and water are affecting Americans’ health. Housing is unaffordable, and the administration is making things worse. Cuts to education and medical research and national security breaches have made Americans less safe. The regime accidentally deported a legal resident because of “administrative error” and now says it cannot get him back.
Booker ended his marathon speech by reminding listeners that, in America, We the People are sovereign.
It starts with the people of the United States of America—that’s how this country started: ‘We the people.’ Let’s get back to the ideals that others are threatening, let’s get back to our founding documents…. Those imperfect geniuses had some very special words at the end of the Declaration of Independence…when our founders said we must mutually pledge, pledge to each other ‘our lives, our fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.’ We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right, it’s right or wrong.
Millions of Americans are recognizing the truth–and the import–of that last sentence.
We are not engaged in political policy disputes. The folks offering admonitions about “listening to MAGA’s discontents,” or “finding middle ground” have missed what has become ever more obvious, missed the point with which Booker concluded. The choice we face is not between policies A and B and policies C and D. We are not choosing between efficiency and waste. What we face is a stark choice between Constitutional governance and autocracy, between human-kindness and cruelty, between destruction and continuity, between progress toward civic equality and a return to the 1950s and Jim Crow. For Christian Americans, it’s a choice between actual Christianity and Christian Nationalism. For women, it’s a choice between individual autonomy and “the problem that has no name.”
This is a moral moment.
I agree that street protests are vital. I don’t know whether my texts, emails and phone calls get through to politicians without being edited or skewed. Based on the responses I get, they seem to have little or no effect. However I do think that enough other people join me in sending them, they probably do have an impact. But street protests can’t be swept under the rug. The bigger they are the more media coverage they will get and the more support they provide to the whole resistance movement, including those fence sitters who are afraid to express themselves.
This Saturday we need to show up to keep the momentum going.
400 million likes for Cory Booker. That’s impressive!
Corey Booker is making a name for himself. If nothing else, he has taken the name of Strom Thurmond out of the record books. That’s what I was praying for as he got to hour 23. We can feel the momentum going in the right direction.
The key question now is, can we sustain it? Can we depend on people like Treasury Secretary Lutnick, who seems to have graduated from the Marie Antoinette School of Finance, to make derogatory statements about Social Security recipients? Will the liberation day tariffs be causing more pain to the good people who only wanted to buy eggs? Will that be enough to overcome the seeming inability of the Democrats take their fingers off of their triggers BEFORE they get the guns out of the holsters?
Hope springs eternal!
I don’t know where parking is by the Indiana Statehouse. It’s supposed to rain as well unfortunately. Hopefully people will still turn out.
I live right on the Wisconsin border. And by driving through state and seeing the amount of signs in front of businesses and homes, claiming to be pro’maga, You could have thought this win would have been impossible. It seems The premise of legality is null and void. It absolutely is illegal to buy votes, and yet this is exactly what’s happening. And I do think that the maga boss, is wanting to create havoc where mass protests occur. That way he can claim Marshalls law! I would venture to say this is the plan, and I venture to say that it will push him to run for a third term. And, there might not even be an election. He’ll just stay in office. After all, if you wants to be there, and the military backs him up, what are you going to do?
This was mentioned before on this thread, if he suspends habeas corpus, and eliminate Congressional oversight, he can pretty much do what he wants. Everything will be military! Tribunal law, you’ll be putting your trust in the hands of a jag, judge advocate general. I don’t think that’s really where you want to be.
JoAnn,
Sorry I didn’t finish when I started your earlier request, covid has really decimated this household here. I haven’t been this sick in decades. Hopefully it’s on the rebound or I should say I am on the rebound.
But what I was going to say, is, Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, amongst other languages. And the closest relative to the Jews, was aramic speaking syrians. Before Abraham, there was no division in that population. This was not an ethnic issue, it was religious. And throughout the millennia, many of Israel’s enemies never forgot that the abrahamic covenant brought about state of Israel. And back during that time, there were many proselytes who practiced the Jewish religion. Hence, the day of Pentecost back in 33 CE. And many of those prosolites went back home preach the dogma of Christ. Needless to say, this ticked off a bunch of folks. The Christians used the Jews as money changers, because they deemed that very thing to be inappropriate. Anyway, I hope this makes some kind of sense, lol! I always thought that if you dig deep enough, everything makes sense! At least in history.
My group of friends, most of us in our 70s, will be heading to our Capitol on Saturday. We can’t turn it over to the younger ones, we all have to get out there. We will be walking, using canes and walkers, but we will be there. Let’s hope the streets are jammed, traffic is halted and the news publishes the truth about it.
Be a true pacifist on Saturday. Do not let anyone push you into violence. Stay calm.
Thank you, Sheila, for these encouraging words and examples. May Indianapolis have a huge turnout Saturday afternoon at the State House to support the concerns of our brothers and sisters..
Sharon is right about keeping up the momentum, but that’s where the opposition party is failing, like with Schumer (who needs to retire); Wall Street and the oligarchy control the Dems, which prevents them from protesting the oligarchy en masse. They’ve sent out Bernie and AOC, but who will fall for that stunt again?
The GOP was told not to hold town halls, but where are the Dems? Where is the Indiana Democratic Party? What is their response to fascism?
If they want to collect reactionary votes in the next election cycle, they will miss a grand opportunity and fail on election day. If the game plan follows Schumer’s recommendation of “just wait,” they will fail come election day.
I don’t know if we’ve ever had an honest “we the people” moment when governing the US. Einstein called us an oligarchy in 1949, and I suspect we were there long before that. Since almost all the Founders were oligarchs, and the people weren’t equal, it’s safe to say that we’ve always been an oligarchy, meaning the people have almost no influence over those who govern us. And the Koch-owned Scalia sealed our fate with Citizen’s United.
I installed a “Who Funds Who” extension in Chrome that highlights people and institutions they have documented, who and what contributes money to them, and who they contribute to. It’s very enlightening!
Just to be clear, our battle is NOT with Donald J. Trump, Elon Musk, or MAGA; our struggle is against the oligarchy that controls this country. The oligarchy is enmeshed with our intelligence agencies, mob, and military. The combo is called the Deep State. To know who the Deep State is, look at the agencies that Musk and DOGE haven’t infiltrated to make them more “efficient” and root out “waste and corruption.”
Putin doesn’t own Trump, as our “leftist media” likes to claim; the Russian mob more likely owns him. They’ve made that dummy a fortune by laundering dirty money through his real estate interests. Everything he tries to run himself ends up in bankruptcy. The Irish, Russian, and Israeli mafia love to launder dirty money through US real estate, and NY and Palm Beach are their two favorite markets. Epstein and Trump were neighbors in NY and Palm Beach, FL – coincidence?
It is a true and very sad “hoot” when 400M likes are seemingly falsely equivocated to people risking their lives against dogs, tear gas and fire hoses in Alabama. Waiting for a column “clarifying” the difference between virtue postering and effective political action?
And has anyone considered the fact that Booker just kicked off his ’28 campaign? It is likely a “coincidence” that immediately after his speech I got multiple texts and emails looking for money….
Lester;
I agree with your comment that Corey Booker just made an un-official (in the eyes of the Federal Election Commission) announcement that he is running for the 2028 nomination for the Presidency. Un-official means that he doesn’t have to register with the FEC and conform to the contribution rules. The more money he can collect before he has to conform with the rules, the better off the campaign will be when it does become “official.”
That said; It was a great performance and worthy of the term “good trouble.”
Revolution is organic, and that’s always been true. It has started, and the economic consequences of the dumbism of MTV (Musk, Trump, Vance supported by Mike Johnson) will work their way down to here. The class that built, builds, and now rebuilds the field of blue will grow in number and stature and spread.
The goal of restoration of what has been demonstrated to be a successful form of government is all we need to focus on. The country has been through much worse times, and the Constitution has survived every attack. We cannot afford to lose this time, no matter the price.
I noticed corporate media is not highlighting the protests because I have to keep telling my 80 year old mother that they are occurring because I am watching them from the various ‘Youtube’ ‘informative groups’—not sure what to call them; but things have got to hurry.
I can’t say specifically where I work but medical research is getting decimated now. I just got wind that if you don’t have a grant and you are a PHd–you and your team will be losing your job. The MD’s can go back into the clinics. We are losing the scientists–I may need to start looking because I work in research.
Our courts are not moving fast enough–but I am happy to see the protests
I don’t know whether people would vote Corey Booker for President. I think Tim Walz is more popular right now. Democrats need to be careful who they choose for 2028…
Suzanne–truth and they can’t choose a woman and they can’t choose a person of color—unfortunately this country has not grown past it’s baked in racism, classism, and misogyny.
Wall Street and Big Law, including Paul Wuss own Corey. Not precisely an outsider of the Dem establishment. He is not an oppositional force against the oligarchy. He just has a D besides his name.
If this is the DNC’s answer, they will lose again in 2028. It will also hurt them in 2026.
The rumor is if Trump and the MAGATs mess with the Constitution and allow a third term for a POTUS that, Obama will be open to running again, too. Obama is not my favorite, but the establishment Dems think he is a god.
I have always liked Corey Booker, having lived in N.J.until mid-2019. This is a guy who ran INTO a burning building in Newark, to save someone from a fire!
And, as much as I would love to see him be president, I think it is still too soon to have an African American run. The bigotry in this country is still massive!!!!!!!!!
It sounds like the Dems are hoping Obama would come back if they open it up for a third term but I don’t see Obama doing that… Plus I agree that this country still won’t vote for a woman as President.
I’ll be heading to a Bay Area protest on Saturday. I told my spouse I’m going but he’s afraid to attend. He doesn’t want TROUBLE. We just submitted our taxes and things are tight financially. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can say to convince him these protests are peaceful and actually a delight to attend. It’s amazing to be in a crowd of common thinkers. I got that feeling in DC at the Rally to Restore Sanity back in 2011. 200k people showed up that day in late October and even though the mid-term brought disaster to Ds, it was a memory I’ll never forget. My poor feet were frozen.
What a delusion. Trump is so messing with you about a third term and right on cue the left reacts as their unhinged predictable selves. Who actually believes CB got 400 million likes on TT for that diatribe of nothingness.
The AI Bots were extra busy for those 24 hours.
Don’t forget WI voted to enshrine
voter ID into their constitution – oh gasp!!!
By summer I expect Trumps poll numbers to be even higher in spite of all your little tantrum protests. You realize you aren’t converting anyone to your side, right????
Just the same ole anti-Trump hating crowd.
The clown show is entertaining except all those people destroying tesla are gonna get their butts thrown in jail – classless and crass.
I don’t know who saw this, but our (cough-cough) senator, Jim Banks, was confronted by a terminated HHS agent and asked whether he planned to do anything about the illegal and improper federal government layoffs. Banks told him, “You probably deserved it.” The terminated HHS agent asked WHY he deserved it. Banks replied, “You seem like a clown.”
Banks deserves any derogatory or profane adjective that can be thrown at him. Why? Because he seems like a soulless XXXX.
I agree with Sheila’s comments, except for one thing. Given their views on science and education, I don’t think they yearn for the 1950s, but more like the 1250s.
Maybe 1066 with Trump sending the troops into Greenland (of course, William led his army; Trump has ‘bone spurs’).