I am kind of too scared to ask here, but what did it actually achieve?
Knocked Strom Thurmond’s racist ass filibuster of the civil rights act out of the #1 slot.
Let’s be fair now: he also raised his national profile among the party faithful.
Good for that piece of shit Zionist genocidaire then, I guess.
Is dethroning the 67-year-long record of some racists’ rant not good enough for you?
Politics isn’t sportsball, so no. Breaking arbitrary stats doesn’t mean shit in terms of making material changes in the world, which is what politics is about.
And you are the arbiter of what’s meaningful to someone else? Spout off about “sportsball” all you want, but your lack of vision for what material change this might possibly inspire in others helps nobody. Someone, somewhere out there, is fired up over this, and they’ll enact more change than this dogwater attitude ever will.
It is not unreasonable to ask why he didn’t use the filibuster to block actual legislation, instead of just I terupting procedure.
No, of course it’s not unreasonable to ask that, and I never implied that it is. It would have been incredible if he had chosen a more potent time. But that’s not what is being said, nor was it what I’m arguing against.
Best summation yet.
No, that certainly is not all it achieved. It created awareness and engagement. It shows someone still has a spine. It gives those racist fucks that much more to choke on while they flail around with their dying ideals. Have some imagination.
And why bother being so outwardly dismissive of something like this? What does that achieve? A few upvotes from a few fellow dispassionates? God damn it, no wonder those assholes still feel like they are winning.
they elected oz in the very next session; using a filibuster to prevent his confirmation is how you use a filibuster effectively.
How would that possibly have prevented his confirmation? It still went through after Booker’s speech on a party-line vote, didn’t it? What could Booker have said that would have shifted their opinion? What would you have said during a filibuster that would have any other effect on the party that was bound and determined to confirm him?
the same way thurmond did it; you secure the votes behinds the scenes and then throw a filibuster when it’s time to vote to turn up the pain; not when there’s nothing on the table and no one around like booker did it.
It was a great show for what it was, but did it achieve anything? Not really. Which is, in and of itself, pretty sad.
Performances like that are meant to inspire acts of political courage among the people.
Yet your performance has inspired nothing but antipathy
If they want to inspire then get out and march from the front. I’m not sticking my neck out until they do.
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.
What did your comment achieve?
Sure, but how many protests legally prevent half of Congress from doing anything?
Edit: rewrite for better negation agreement.
Why does it have to achieve an immediate result to be a worthy action?
At least it’s not Strom Thurmand mad about the civil rights act with the longest speaking time record anymore…
my cynicism never fails me
Absolutely nothing. It’s nice that he broke the record of some asshole racist but functionally nothing has changed.
Democrats are just as impotent today as they were yesterday and throughout the Biden administration.
Nothing. It was cringe and should be condemned. Don’t let hasbara bots convince you otherwise.
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.
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
It slowed the process if nothing else. Every day that this administration can be slowed down is a win.
Awareness. Engagement. Unity. Support. Connection.
People wanting instant gratification is part of the reason we’re in this mess. There is not going to be one singular event that fixes everything. Booker stood up there and said that not everyone is going to just roll over and take it. And that does mean something in the long run.
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 resolution nullifying the false emergency against Canada?
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!
