What did Cory Booker 25-Hour speech actually achieve in terms of change?
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Knocked Strom Thurmond’s racist ass filibuster of the civil rights act out of the #1 slot.
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Think of it like a protest. Most protests don't DO anything, but he forced the entire senate to sit and listen to him for 25 hrs rant about how bad things have gotten. I'm sure there was work and stuff they were supposed to vote on that he effectively delayed. But that's all it really was, a record breaking protest.
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It got people to talk about it and take interest in what is going on. There are undoubtedly some portion of the population that are fully oblivious of the world around them, or just indifferent at least, but someone going on for that long has to make them wonder why he would do that.
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If they want to inspire then get out and march from the front. I'm not sticking my neck out until they do.
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Absolutely nothing. It's nice that he broke the record of some asshole racist but functionally nothing has changed.
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Awareness. Engagement. Unity. Support. Connection.
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It's political momentum. Same thing bernie and AOC are doing. None of them have changed anything yet, it's just getting attention and support for future acts
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Sure, but how many protests prevent half of Congress to legally do nothing
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Senators (in the US) are elected representatives of their state. Sen. Booker, through his 25 hour speech, brought his constituents' message to the forefront, criticized the Senate, Democrats' and his own failures to act. He got millions of people to look at Senate business as if he was a professional streamer which is usually boring stuff. The speech is Booker's answer to "what can I do at this moment to make a difference?", which hopefully will get others to ask the same of themselves.
It's impossible to measure the true impact of the speech afterward, but it's intended to inspire people to take action, resist the Trump monarchy, and cause "good trouble" where they can. Who knows whether this has had any influence on the Wisconsin Supreme Court which was a humiliation to Musk, or if it had any influence on the 4 Republican Senators joining Democrats to pass a bill nullifying the false emergency against Canada?
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And that is absolutely all.
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It achieved false catharsis, the main scam product Democrats are always selling. Performative nonsense immediately contradicted by their actual (lack of) actions. Immediately afterwards they helped confirm a Trump judicial appointment with help from Booker. His long speech wasn't even to delay any legislation. It has no so-called momentum, which you can note has no stated descriptors in the other comment. Momentum for what? Sitting on your hands and then voting for them again in 4 years? This is not a real political party, it is just the controlled opposition of the US political duopoly trying its usual parlor tricks to make its potential voters stop recognizing how they aren't cleaning house or really doing anything at all.
Real parties do exist. It is a struggle due to the aforementioned duopoly and general level of political education in the USA, but it is a struggle worth joining because this is the only "opposition" you will ever see being forwarded by the Democratic Party by its own volition. Every bit of progress has been hard fought and its vanguard has always been left organizing outside of the major parties. Join that vsnguard!
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It's better than nothing. But that's all it achieved.
