I am kind of too scared to ask here, but what did it actually achieve?
Broke the racist Strom Thurmond’s record that had been an embarrassment for the Senate that dated back decades.
Set a marker to show how strongly Democrats reject what’s going on despite their current lack of options for pushing back.
Anyway, IMO this post flagrantly breaks rule #6 and should really be deleted. Put this discussion elsewhere.
The current senator minority leader is Chuck Schumer. He’s incapable of being an effective opposition leader. The dude is addicted to the status quo, terrified of rocking the boat, completely disconnected with the American people, and overall stuck in the mindset of a 20th century politician.
There is a lot of frustration with him among democratic voters, but he’s maintained his power among the donors and other senators.
A huge part of his argument is that there’s nobody else that can replace him. At the moment, he’s not wrong. His rivals in the Senate are either cut from the same cloth as him, or are in their own way content with the status quo. I know people on Lemmy love Bernie, but the man was elected to the Senate the same year Pokemon Diamond and Pearl hit the shelves and is no closer to the revolution he promised.
While this filibuster doesn’t accomplish anything itself, it’s part of a larger effort Booker is making to raise his national profile and position himself so he can replace Schumer. In that context, it’s an important and smart strategic move.
Ironically this filibuster was probably less physically and emotionally exhausting than trying to teach all of his Senate colleagues how to effectively use TikTok.
Bernie is independent, so of course he can’t replace him… They aren’t in the same party.
This is facetious. He had no problem running to be the democratic nominee, and is a member of the democratic Senate caucus.
That’s because the American people themselves are too afraid to rock the boat themselves to where they only see two political parties. They’re scared about what Bernie promised and they made fun of it. Like I remember back in 2016, people were going around like “HE’S GONNA GIVE US FREE INTERNET, GUYS! FREE INTERNET!” when he had wanted us to have a free market so we wouldn’t be tied up with the ISP monopoly.
Bernie knew very well that his only chance that he had was to run Democratic since, well, we hadn’t had an Independent candidate be president for over 170+ years in this country so you go figure. And the ironic thing is that Trump probably knew in the back of his mind that he had no shot of running as an independent either, so he went the Republican way and apparently got further with that than Bernie did as a Democrat since the DMC wanted their status-quo favorites to run.
Bernie is a social media merchant. Dude is an expert at looking like he’s challenging the status quo, while never doing anything that could truly piss them off. Dude straight up ended an interview when the interviewer started suggesting Schumer face a primary challenge.
Trump is awful, but his election is in its own way proof that the American people are willing to reject the status quo and embrace change.
Democrats don’t need their own Trump, but they do need someone who is results oriented and willing to abandon a lot of longstanding assumptions.
People want the Democrats to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING. This shows that he’s at least willing to stand for something, and that goes a long way.
Publicity, awareness, and political capital which do matter in politics
How so? I had not see any measurable awareness growth.
I really don’t see any point in it.
The republicans have always gotten their way by obstructing everywhere they can and forcing negotiations even when they do not have the majority. The democratic leadership (e.g. hakeem jeffries and chuck schumer) throw their hands up and say “we cant do anything” and promptly do nothing or flip sides.
Doing this sets a standard for democratic politicians and puts pressure on the democrats to do something, anything even if it is just to be a thorn in the republicans side. Any of them who continues to waste the little power they do have will have to face their own constituents who ask “if Booker can do that for 25 hours, where the fuck were you when we needed you to fight back against this”
will have to face their own constituents who ask “if Booker can do that for 25 hours, where the fuck were you when we needed you to fight back against this”
My call to Senator Bennett and Hickenlooper’s office the other day was essentially “why the fuck is Colorado not leading the way on this? You better get you ass in line to take his spot next”
was at my local post office on that day. postal worker was watching it on her lunch break. ended up in a really good convo about the current admin, probable doge action against USPS and civil resistance in general.
it was a social connection between two people that reinforced personal conviction. to me (and perhaps her as well), that was priceless.
I’ve seen it mentioned that his speech was more of a shot across the bow of DNC leadership, highlighting that shit needs to change. Personally, I lean more toward your sentiment.
not see any measurable awareness growth
How do you measure awareness?
And how do you watch it grow?
I mean, we’re here talking about it, aren’t we?
Sorry. I am bafflingly unable to measure your comment on my Awareness-o-tron
These things don’t come with switches. You don’t just flip it on and off. It’s more like a snowball rolling down a hill. It starts small, but if it keeps up momentum, it ends up burying a small town.
That whole time, Republicans couldn’t get anything else done. Just imagine what Democrats could actually obstruct if more of them had the values and willpower to do so.
The next day 4 GOP Senators sided with DEMs against T. They voted and passed denying “emergency” for tariffs against Canada. Now it goes to House, and they blocked it in a super weird way, but — It is a chip in the wall…
I love the idea that it changed the minds Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, but we all know their votes were virtue signals for the bourbon state.
Murkowski and Collins are morons but may occasionally have brief flairs of sanity, so I’ll give you them :D
McConnell and Paul also see the writing on the wall. When the cost of living skyrockets, if democracy somehow survives, the Republicans are right fucked.
It’s better than fucking nothing!
