Cory Booker, a senator from New Jersey, recently went on a 25-hour filibuster. This broke the record previously held by Strom Thurmond, a senator from South Carolina who spoke against the 1957 civil rights act for 24 hours and 18 minutes. A filibuster is when a member of the senate talks for as long as humanly possible, with water but no potty breaks, with the goal to kill a bill. However, Booker’s speech had a different purpose. His main goal was to stand up to Donald Trump and demonstrate that the Democratic Party is still fighting for democracy. 

Cory Booker talked about the failure of Trump’s second term, but also the failure of the Democratic Party to stand up to Trump and his increasing power and control over government, and the disastrous effects of his policies on the American people, such as cutting Medicaid or cutting Social Security. 

It is ironic that Cory Booker broke the record on the senate floor, as the previous record was set by Strom Thurmond, a staunch segregationist who would have hated Cory Booker talking on the floor because of his beliefs that black people shouldn’t hold political positions, which Booker even addressed after the fact.  

People are hoping that this is a turning point for Democrats and that they begin to stand up more to Donald Trump’s increasingly concerning grabs of power, which we almost certainly will see over the next 45 months of his presidency.