I'm seeing a lot of people write off Cory Booker's speech as “merely performative.” Of course in a sense it is a performance and doesn't achieve anything on its own, but the whole point here is to get people paying attention and involved, given the disastrous approval rating of the Democratic Party.
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Exactly!
I agree with you.
He was standing up & standing out to bring attention to the harm being done by this administration, then telling us what we need to do to stop it.
Everyone needs to join the April 5 protests https://handsOff2025.com
950+ protests across the country!
Find one near you! 👍💙🔆
It's like dem critics yell "Do something!" and he does something and they yell "no not like that!"
That's not performative.
these are all the *job* when you're an elected official
And as a bonus, it's still legal. No easier time to join a protest than it's still legal time.
The old dinosaurs may find it a bad memory.
Republicans read a Dr Seuss book.
There have to be social consequences for supporting Nazis. Call them out. Not in Washington. Everywhere! It's not up to Washington. Shun them, disinvite them, challenge them on voting for racism, bigotry and hatred.
But the Republicans vote together as a block, and we snipe at each other.
They are destroying our government and alienating the entire world.
But seriously, Republicans bought all three branches of our government, the media, the churches, nearly all social media.
It's very serious headwinds. What can they do legally?
I'm glad that our Democratic representatives and senators do have ideas.
We're in a pretty deep hole. Best pull together.
Fund government projects in every state, every community. Use federal resources to support people not billionaires.
That is not barely left of center.
"Merely performative" is hawking gold sneakers, bibles and meme coins.
"Merely performative" is nodding piously while being prayed over by evangelicals in the Oval Office.
Cory Booker was speaking truth to power.
Those who claim that it doesn’t achieve anything are merely deflecting the fact that the responsibility for achievement is now on them the react.
Or saw/heard very little of it,
I was moved to tears listening to him,
I’m personally feel everyone in the Democrat party get off their fucking asses & Make some good trouble
We fail to stop him/them,
Democrats will be the ones to blame,
Fight for America
I think the moment calls for
more than political gibberish.
At least Senator Corey Booker has taken on the challenge to get in *Good Trouble* for his constituents and for the American People! 💙
I'm glad he did what he did and we got some wins in other places yesterday. Hopefully that momentum continues 🙏🏻
All the coverage I'm seeing about the speech is that it was a record breaking speech. People are paying attention to what exactly?
Booker heard calls for performance and he answered with a performance. I'm not hearing any answers to calls for better policies.
But that's just the political policy equivalent of a rewind button. They need more.
Ready Day One!
THAT is the America we all know and love; and THAT is the America the world really needs right now!
As it was, I watched him twenty hours in making cogent points intelligently and clearly, then went back to the start to find he didn't seem to have ebbed either in strength or in...
Was it a performance? Yes, of course. But to denigrate it as MERELY performative is just silly.
https://bsky.app/profile/pixelhacker.bsky.social/post/3lltvspcmlc2o
🚨 Be there April 5: https://HandsOff2025.com
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"in a sense
performative"
you're apologetic!
do not do that!
I can't believe you said it
a strong leader wouldn't give an enemy an inch
could have you or
I stood for more than 24 hrs?!
the passion in
his words
and eyes
the exhaustion
of his body
the quavering
in his voice!
― John Lydgate
2025 - addition: "and some of the people will never be please, ever" aka the Pessimistic
He pretends to and then goes along with it.
Within a minute of the speech ending, unanimous consent to permit the vote on Matthew Whitaker was entered.
Not a single Democrat objected.
Booker spoke for 25 hours,
Dems dropped the ball 1 minute later.
It's a hashtag, and it's mostly Texas. Maybe that's a population demographic share.
I can watch MSM for opinion pieces.
We’ve been screaming into the void for democrats to do EXACTLY this
I think we should all look to both admire courage and contemplate our own well of it
https://open.substack.com/pub/noelkeith/p/tranquil-piece-of-mind-vol1-no2-courage?r=4c7psw&utm_medium=ios
EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS ON CAPITOL HILL, THERE'S NOTHING BUT PERFORMATIVE.. I mean, seriously no work is getting down up there😳
Drumph is in office, AGAIN, all on massive performance and spectacle.
Politics is performative.
Governing is practical
The two go together for elected reps
That's why drumph flounders in office: he's ONLY a carnival barker. But that's how you drive narratives.
They really didn't though.
I'm not crapping on his efforts, I just don't think it reached who it needed to.
How few people do you need to get away with 350m clicks.
If you said a million people watched it I wouldn't have doubted it, more than a qtr billion? Really?
As for TV, no. People were watching the 15 and 30 sec clips of it. The 24 hour channels will spend the entire day looking at a parked hearse during a state funeral but didn't spend enough time on Booker.
Insults? Thanks for giving us Mainers a good rep.
How about millions of people were made aware of it?
Millions of people who went searching to see it so, not the people that it needs to reach.
I doubt some of these numbers though. NBC apparently claims they had 350 million viewers. 🤷♂️
But what follows MUST be substantive, or it fails, and subsequently undermines all future performative efforts.
Because if a white GOP man did this, people would definitely be shouting praise from the rooftops.
JFS. I say STFU to all the naysayers.
Even if many BSkyers are getting their undies in a bunch again, but this time could have been used more useful.
Like, finally arresting Trump and everyone having ties to him. Instead of expecting the ordinary citizens doing their jobs for them.
You, on the other side...getting hurt or killed will be a likely outcome. Even with your neighbors on your side.
That's the big difference. Yet the Dems...
Maybe you understand now why I'm pretty pissed at the Dems as well.
They have the power and the means. They are well connected and know what it takes and needs to stop Trump and his cronies effectively. They are not the lonesome defenders as which they like to see themselves.
Exactly!
I agree with you!
You CAN feel it!
He was standing up & standing out to bring attention to the harm being done by this administration, & telling us what we need to do!
Everyone needs to join the April 5 protests https://handsOff2025.com
950+ protests across the country!
Find one near you! 👍💙🔆
Nobody will remember it four score and seven years from now.
No one event is going to end his evil reign of terror.
We need to use all the tools in the box. . . protests, voting, filibusters, emails, and phone. . . to wrest our power back.
It can be done.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250401-thousands-of-hungarians-protest-against-pride-ban-law
including Schumer who thanked him for standing up to Trump (after leading the charge to pass the budget…)
Booker also lied on a ‘Who Killed Malcolm X’ doc/series on Netflix
I can't imagine protesting civil rights.
cory's words are powerful and appreciated but must be met with skepticism. i will give him a chance though.
🔥No firings
🔥No resignations
🔥No arrests
🔥No fucking consequences
🔥Just how #FelonRapistTraitorTrump likes it.
those "out of power" are not "out of power"!
Some on the left seem as out of touch with the people as MAGA.
But caught some of his speech, and he sounded like someone who is getting it. That finally there might be more to the democrats (I like AOC as well).
Let's see how it goes. But they may be at last chance saloon, f-up now, the end
Let's back it up with action on April 5th!
https://Fiftyfifty.one
Felt like the rest of the Dems were too busy celebrating to fight. And that hurt, because the fight is not over, hell it's barely started.
Like we could have kept that momentum rolling. Argue everything for an hour or two.