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.’”
Bullshit. The begging, pleading lies of those caught in the act and facing down a 20 year sentence, promising now that things have come to a head they’ll change the way they’ve been all their life if just once more they’re let off the hook for their actions.
It reminds me so much of the Saddam bit from the South Park movie where Saddam is in an abusive relationship with Satan and keeps winning him back by promising to change and then doing something performative before going back to his old ways. “I can change, I can change!” he sings and it’s the same tune these Democrats are singing. They’ve been singing it off and on for decades every time they lose the base too much then immediately putting away that number as soon as they get the base back and berating them for demanding better, for ‘purity testing’ and so on and brow-beat with accusations that demands for change help Republicans win.
So excuse us if we’re a little skeptical because this song and dance is very worn.
How about actually defending trans people and trans rights instead of getting mealy-mouthed? How about making impassioned speeches in defense of trans kids right to affirming care and transitioning? No they won’t do that.
Or condemning the genocide in Palestine and calling out the elements in their own party supporting it? No they won’t do that either.
I’m with you, but fixing income inequality and reversing climate change are way higher on my list than either of the issues you mentioned.
Neither of which they’re going to do or address.
This is Lucy with the football and Dem voters are Charlie Brown sure this time she won’t pull it away. Well she will. And if she doesn’t they have the Republicans who magically have the power to break laws, rules, ignore the parliamentarian and Senate decorum and so on and do whatever they need to put a stop to this to which Dems put up feeble resistance then shrug and say they tried but oh well. They didn’t really try. They never will. And they’ll never break rules, never stack the supreme court, never play ball.
They will let their most rightward members split to sabotage a vote, they won’t try party discipline, they won’t whip members, they won’t threaten, they won’t do old politics stuff of if you fuck with the party on major things you get shut out of everything, your district doesn’t even get $5000 for a new sign for its park because you get nothing, not assignments, no allowing your bills, no riders, nothing. Play ball or get shut down. Play ball or the party supports a primary challenger on top of those things and does everything it can to push you out. But they won’t do that because they don’t want any of this and are happy to have spoilers derail it so they can pretend they wanted it and pretend they listened to their base and pretend they tried.
More so than the destruction of Palestine, which Booker supports?
Also the US military is one of the world’s biggest polluters, so that one isn’t unrelated.
You’re right; Addressing the financial pain-points, and securing the future of the children of the bottom ~90% should be the US’s primary concern.
Successfully doing so is what buys a political party sufficient goodwill to be able to address social concerns for minorities in need.
It is literally the “why are we sending aid overseas when we have starving children here” meme, but unironic.
Performative bullshit from a zionazi genocide supporter.
zionist POS
Do better, but don’t ever consider what it means to actually do better, also don’t actually do it.
Thank you for saying this Cory. All other democrats who don’t take up this message can bite my balls. At least this guy seems ok or at least conscious.
Honestly the first actual sign of resistance from within the Senate chamber.
Resistance seems like a bit much, can we compromise and agree it’s the first sign that a Democratic senator has a pulse?
Credit should be given where due: Sen. Booker is about to make history in less than an hour, breaking the record for the longest filibuster in US history.
Edit: He did it! Now it’s on every American and person around the world to resist the Trump administration.
That’s fair enough, I absolutely agree that his resolve is notable and his voice should be elevated, but will we see that happen in reality?
Booker is a staunch zionist. He should be in prison for supporting the killing of Palestinians.
Okay buddy we’ll at least he wants to keep the fascism over there.
I don’t think that’s better…
You don’t think it’s better that the country with most powerful military and bases all over the world doesn’t fall to fascism before Israel?
Even if you don’t live in America it seems pretty obvious that is, in fact, better
That seems like a matter of perspective
“As long as you keep the killing to brown people, fine”
There is no “keeping fascism over there.” It always comes home. Do you want to end it now or when you’re the target?
Standards are low.
He stopped a full day of business in the Senate. I’ve never been a huge Booker fan but I gotta admit, not only is it a pretty impressive feat but this is exactly the kind of thing we need from them right now.
A full day of … nothing. The senate, and congress as a whole don’t really do anything these days. They pass maybe one consequential bill every 2 years and then go back to sitting on there asses because the filibuster prevents them from doing anything besides “bipartisan” shit like sending weapons to Israel.
All the bad shit that’s been happening is coming from trumps desk with no approval or input from congress.
Hey now give him credit where credit is due, he at least made sure to wait until after the spending bill. That way he didn’t interfere with project 2025 at all.
What a thoughtful soul
Congress, republican controlled*, has chosen not to act, which many view as a tacit approval.
No, we need their party to stop bombing Palestinian civilians. In no way is booker, who is a staunch zionist, promising to change that.
Booker and every other Senator voted unanimously for all of Trump’s political appointees. Booker is full of shit.
I think a lot of people on both sides are still living in a weird fantasy bubble that we have “two sides” and they’re actually fighting each other.
Yes, some outliers are probably genuine, but we’re all getting played if we think this shit isn’t designed to make a select group of people wealthy no matter who wins or who speaks out or what the political landscape looks like. You don’t leave trillions of dollars up to chance and the votes of uninformed or uninterested voters.
The first sentence is true, the second sentence maybe but I don’t know. That’s why I am saying this is the first sign of resistance in the chamber, because up til now it was a lot of humming and hawing about how bad this is but otherwise nodding along as if it was business as usual, but this could be one of a future series of acts of resistance. It’s easy to write off all Democratic senators, but this is the first tangible delay to the Republican majority’s business. He brought to the spotlight many important messages in front of many people, about taxing the rich, giving affordable healthcare etc. (unlike Ted Cruz’s timewaster filibuster that was reading Green Eggs and Ham and stuff).
So many people seem to miss the point. Booker essentially became a streamer for a day except with usually boring Senate stuff, and was able to get at least a few people energized about important topics on how to resist Trump and cause “good trouble”. He pushed his health and stamina to an admirable extent for a politician. It’s far more newsworthy than Democrats waving little handboards around.
I get what you’re saying but to me this act seems completely consistent with the standard Democrat mo of not taking action when it really matters, while acting when it doesn’t. The mo that creates the impression of doing things by only doing an insufficient amount. Case in point - Booker’s action did not take place a week ago during the CR vote. Doing it then would have really mattered. If it did, I’d have been shocked. We discussed this with some friends when the rumor came down that Chuck is going to vote for the bill. So now I can’t shake the feeling this act is just meant to paper over that inaction which got many Democrat voters very angry at the party.
Democrats in Congress are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I get it. But what the senator did is something that would inspire individuals to organize into groups to put more pressure on the administration and its allies. Booker put a part of himself on the line, got his message out there.
After this is the part where the Democratic minority of the Senate, conceivably, will fail to follow through and organizing together and amongst their constituents and putting pressure on red state senators. At least I heard Booker was doing something along those lines in NJ this weekend. If they can force a 60%-80% productive work week in the Republican Senate that is something.
Democrats lose and fail on purpose. If they ever get a clear majority, they have a problem. How do they explain why they aren’t getting us healthcare and human rights when the GOP is powerless? They can’t. The mask would be completely off. So, instead they lose and then beg for money from idiots.
What did he resist? There wasn’t a bill he was filibustering. This was a performance.
Stop being satisfied with performance.
I already said downthread that it was a record-breaking performance. It got eyeballs on an important message in the same way as what Sanders and AOC are doing in their tour around their country.
Dem Senators’ performance has been a big pile of disappointment during 2025 so far, hence I’m calling this a first sign of resistance because we have had essentially nothing noteworthy prior to that and in the chamber since Sanders’ organizing efforts are outside of that, while his and other Senators’ efforts to bring bills forward and grill Trump appointees have seemed ineffectual, and Schumer led a big letdown with the CR bill.
It’s not everything we need, it’s not enough on its own, but it’s not nothing either. I don’t know how many people I have to say this to.
If it’s not nothing, then show me the win. Show me what we gained.
A WI supreme court Musk defeat, millions of views who have heard of “good trouble” and the whole plan to cut services to fund billionaire tax cuts, increased turnout for Apr 5 protests (50501), a 500pt Lemmy thread, so on and so forth. The action is a seed that would bear fruit if Americans and others actually care for it, be part of the solution and not act all nihilist.
We’re doing our part in Canada. We are out protesting, boycotting Tesla, boycotting many other American goods and not travelling to the US. Time to do yours, and not use your ineffectual Senate as an excuse for inaction. Call your Dem and Repub senators, and even if they don’t listen, then take to the streets, see eye-to-eye with your fellow statesman and make change happen. This is a moment that Americans have to seize upon, not just for the 40-odd old geezers in the Dem Senate Caucus to do.
No, how is this a win as a result of this “filibuster?”
The immediate effect is that Senate business has been delayed by an entire day. From within the Senate as well, if there’s ever going to be a tone shift with Republicans in Congress wrestling back control from the President, it would be now, looking at how Trump declared a emergency against a trade deficit today.
Like I said already, the most significant benefits of this speech will come by Senators and Americans at-large following through, if that can happen. Your line of questioning is like watering a seed and wondering where the fruit is right away.
He made a loyalty pledge to Israel during this performance, and defended the genocide. I don’t want him to follow through.
a 500pt Lemmy thread
Thank god, I thought we were in trouble for a second!
Have you seem what Sanders is doing?
Yes, but most his effectual action seems to occur outside the Senate chamber, rallying crowds together with Ocasio-Cortez.
Have you seen the bills he’s drafted? Dude does both.
so you’ll support a better policy platform, right?“No, mom said it’s my turn to bomb Muslims!!!”
- Democrats whining about not being in power
No, no, no, I said i would do better. Better rolling over to expose my soft underbelly
Feels like too little too late.
He’s applying for the Democratic nomination.
Nomination to what?
There are no primaries from now on in the democratic party, only nominations.
You wouldn’t force the democrats to pass a purity test would you?
Because it is.
Where was this motion when the continued resolution was on the floor? Fucking clowns.
Not a filibuster, there’s not a bill in question or a confirmation on the line. He’s just holding the floor. I applaud the effort and certainly the message, I’m just not sure why he’s doing it now instead of you know when it counted.
That’s really too bad. This sort of effort should be directed at something specific rather than just being performant :(
Unfortunately that seems to be the Democrat playbook these days. Make a lot of noise, but don’t suit up for the actual battles that would win the war.
This guy is a fucking Zionist clown and a stooge for venture capital. I’m old enough to remember when Obama would take shots at Romney in the 2012 election for Romney’s founder status at Bain Capital. Booker, perhaps simply for love of the game, defended Bain Capital for seemingly no reason other than to get pats on the shoulders from Republicans
And what is this doofus doing now? Wagging his finger at Trump for theatrical reasons. This keeps getting called a filibuster but there’s not specific legislation Booker is trying to kill. There’s no bill he’s trying to stop.
All this fire and gusto to stand around while he eagerly votes for bills to send yet another billion dollars to the Zionist Entity. Fuck this guy. I hope he enjoys hell.
the literal moment his speech stunt was over, the trump appointment for NATO ambassador was unanimously confirmed with zero resistance. these spineless fucks stand for nothing, it’s all for show. props to Booker for the best April fools day prank I’ve ever seen in my life.
Well come on now, support for NATO is a bipartisan consensus! If anything, it’s now a middle finger to Trump!
Citation needed
To what? Booker’s publicly available voting record?
That would be a helpful source, but that isnt the best because bills are stuffed with so many different things that it could be misleading
Better would be a reputable source that quotes him saying that he supports Zionism.
Translation: I made this up
You think I made up that Booker is a Zionist? I’ll cite whatever but I don’t understand what I’m being asked to cite.
Wtf. Cite every claim. This is the internet.
Why do you think you wouldn’t need to cite facts here? Gtfo if you think you can spread misinformation
the angry sealion is a rare sight but it does exist 🦭
yeah like why is it so unbelievable that I call a Democratic politician a Zionist? Zionism is the official party line. What the fuck
“Hey these Democrats sure do give a lot of money to Israel”
“UHHH SOURCE?”
I don’t owe you shit, but here you go: https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-statement-on-israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal
From Cory Booker’s own website in regards to the recent ceasefire:
"The work must continue to achieve a two-state solution that affirms and protects Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state and ensures the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and a state of their own.”
Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state
He’s a Zionist. He says right there on his own website that Israel has a right to exist as specifically an ethnonationalist state. That’s what a Zionist is. It’s someone who supports the creation/maintenance of a ethnically/religiously Jewish nation-state in the region of Palestine with Palestinian Arabs either disenfranchised, made a minority, or completely removed. A Zionist supports Israel as a sovereign Jewish homeland with a Jewish identity along with a nation-state apparatus to enforce this status as homeland.
For further information, please consult CodePink’s anti-zionist website boughtbyzionism.org. Here is the page for Cory Booker:
https://www.boughtbyzionism.org/cory_booker
As you see, he’s taken $893,998 from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is a Zionist lobbying group.
Do you want any further citations? Here is an opensecrets.org search for Zionist lobbying money to various politicians. If you are skeptical of opensecrets, it’s used as a unbiased source of information for AP, the Washington Post, Politico, NBC News, NPR, and the New York Times. Opensecrets cites Federal Election Comission data, which is public information.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
The first link is sufficient, thanks. He’s a Zionist.
And, you dont owe it to me. You do owe it to this Lemmy community.
What did you want them to cite?
He also took the time to praise Israel and defend the genocide during his filibuster.
Fuck right off.
I regret cheering him on now. Fuck this dude.
He also put on a genocide pin and proceeded to preach some biblical Zionism quotes. Usually Democrats stick to the liberal Zionism. Apparently they have moved so far right they identify more with the MAGA crowd now.
It was a loyalty pledge. He put on this performance to get a shot at a leadership position, and he wanted to make it clear to the aipac lobby which side he was on.
Why are our politicians like this… Anyone with eyes can see it’s evil what’s happening there.
Because we have legalized bribery.
And call it ‘lobbying’
AIPAC
I thought it was kinda cool he was mad at Trump for 24 hours straight. This shit takes a lot of physical effort, especially for a 55 year old.
Highly performative though. Not saying it was useless, because it definitely was a statement. It was not yet a "step in the right direction, but at least a “slight bend of the neck to maybe someday start looking in the right direction”. Now I would like every other congressional Democrat to follow it up with something. Furiously voting against absolutely everything the MAGA terrorists propose, no matter what. Call Mike Johnson a cuck live on C-Span, every day. Lock MTG in the bathroom. Create 100 policy proposals for the docket, every day and from everyone until the .txt list is 500 Petabyte big.
Shut congress down. Completely, until Trump is gone. This is war.
I confess we all must look in the mirror and say ‘we will do better.’”
Spoiler: they won’t
Hey now, lets not forget that time Schumer and Pelosi led that “We will win!” chant. If it wasn’t for that, we might be in REAL trouble right now.
Is it even filibustering if he’s not trying to stop any laws being passed?
I’d argue no. I’m kind of confused. I guess it’s a prolonged speech protesting the actions of the admin in general? I somewhat applaud the push back by any member of congress, but I feel like it’s a wasted gesture if it isn’t specifically filibustering an important bill. This just seems like a publicity stunt rather than a meaningful action of resistance.
Its blocking all movement on the floor. Which slows all the garbage they are trying to push through.
I wouldn’t call it a wasted gesture.
But there’s nothing tabled that he’s jamming up?
Why not wait to pull this stunt when trump is actually trying to push through one of his atrocious polices?
To me it seems like another ‘look we’re responding to your anger and calls to do something’ performative action that doesn’t actually do anything, that the democrats are so adroit at
It stalled the vote on Matthew Whitaker as Ambassador of NATO for 25 hours, which immediately happened afterwards and the vote passed anyways
- Everything being done by the republicans is atrocious.
- Trump isn’t going for legislation, he’s just signing executive orders.
- Having someone visibly stand up, draw attention, and say “this isn’t OK” is something some people need to hear, especially to get them to support and/or join in protest.
Sure you could complain that it isn’t enough. And by itself, it isn’t.
It still isn’t nothing.
I don’t want to hear “this isn’t ok” from Cory Booker, one of the most outspoken Zionists in the entire US government. He has no moral framework to stand upon. He’s a proponent of genocide and his contention with Trump is largely theatrical. If he truly had a backbone or even a soul there are a million better choices he could have made before reaching this point.
This guy has taken $893,998 from AIPAC. He’s paid for just like the rest. Fuck this guy.
Letting “perfect” be the enemy of “good”.
Cory Booker is far from perfect. But i will commend any good choice, and this is one of them.
He’s literally one of Israel’s staunchest supporters.
Cory Booker is a murderer and war criminal. The bodies of thousands of Palestinian children lay at his feet. He’s not good in any respect. Stop doing apologia for genocide. In a just world he’d be at the Hague right now on trial with the rest of his colleagues. Fuck this guy. Death to Israel. Death to America.
“genocide is good”
-BlueMAGA Democrats.
Don’t deflect; instead of an ultimately performative action, why didn’t he do this when it could have done some actual good and possibly protected people by blocking one or more of trump’s policies?
I know that sincerely engaging with this question may be intellectually uncomfortable for you, but please at least attempt to critically revaluate your pre-conceived notions about the American political system and the goals of the DNC, establishment democrats and their megadonors
Ive engaged with plenty of folks in this thread, but I don’t appreciate the attitude youre bringing to me out of nowhere, so I won’t be engaging in conversation further than this with you.
You’re engaging in a comment thread I began lmao, and my attitude in asking you a very simple question in why didn’t he wait to perform this gesture when it would actually have an effect is enough to stop you engaging? really?
That’s the spirit that’ll beat trump, hopefully you’re rich and white enough that your complacency won’t affect you personally 🙄
How dare you address me in a curt tone after I acted in deliberate bad faith and held water for nazis. I am above speaking to you and so I leave with my head high.
But why not wait to filibuster an actual policy as both a protest against the admin itself, and to call attention to, and spark outcry, about the policy? It still seems like a waste to not time this type of once in a lifetime event with a particular action by the admin. I feel like if he’s going to do something like this, especially something historic which will get people paying attention, why not use all that attention to it’s maximum potential? The garbage is still going to be pushed through eventually, but if he were doing it at the moment that a garbage policy was being pushed through it would call much more attention to it and create more pushback from people.
But why not wait to filibuster an actual policy as both a protest against the admin itself
Because then theyd be waiting rather than doing? Because this isnt a filibuster, but they can still actually filibuster should something come up?
Because one does not preclude the other?
I didn’t say one did preclude the other. My point is that if you’re going to do something historic that, by it’s unusual and uncommon nature, gets you more attention then usual, why wouldn’t you use that gesture to BOTH protest, and filibuster a bill that will put more attention on the bill because of the historic nature of the filibuster?
And yes, by all means, continue to filibuster and stymie the admin’s progress by filibustering whenever possible. However, the American public are notoriously short of attention, especially when something has already been done before, that subsequent filibusters won’t have the same impact as the original, especially when you have outlets like Fox that can just spin it towards being not worth notice because “same old shit by the dems”. People will eventually tune out, and the opportunity to really amp up the pressure on the Republicans will be lost.
… Or do both, and break your own record?
I dont know about you, but I prefer something to nothing. And I will continue to support anyone being against what Trump is doing. So I’m not going to disparage him for this. I have plenty of things to complain about with Booker. This isn’t one of them.
To each their own I guess.
That’s my point, you can break your own record, but the media and public will be desensitized to it after the first time, sadly most people will tune out after the novelty has passed.
I’m not disparaging him, as much as I am calling into question the timing of it. Any pushback at all is welcome, but it just seems to me to be poorly timed in terms of effectiveness.
I guess we’ll see what kind of effect this has afterwards and if it has a positive outcome.
He could do all that by pulling a fire alarm.
Not really, pretty sure that’d be easy grounds for censure, and the fire alarm would be off in minutes.
And good heavens if he were censured it would affect his ability to do things
