Cory Booker, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself

It’s so hard not to be cynical. I don’t want to be that way. There’s no benefit to it. Plus, I have twin four-year-olds. I want to believe that the people who are deciding whether colleges will still exist when they turn eighteen are doing so with the interest of others in mind. When a fire-breathing dragon is attempting to dismantle the castle of democracy, I want a f***ing knight in shining armor! I know politics are complicated, but for the love of Zod, things are not normal, and too many politicians are behaving like they are. So, when I saw Cory Booker stand for 25 hours on the Senate floor pleading for people to do something, I felt inspired!

My family and I moved to New Jersey over a year ago, and I’m still adjusting. I lived in NYC for 16 years. It’s still home to me. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t beam with pride at a Senator from my new state ringing the alarm for all to hear. He broke Strom Thurmond’s record for the longest filibuster, and it’s always good to eclipse the achievements of bigots. Hell, he even invoked John Lewis’ call to make good trouble, something I swore I didn’t want to hear out of any Democrats’ mouths this year as they sat on their hands, or worse, went along. Cory Booker did what others weren’t, and earned himself a wave of goodwill that had people saying he was building a strong case for leading the Democrats to victory in 2028.

Not. So. Fast.

Booker has been close to the Democratic nomination for years now. Not super close, but he’s been in the mix more than most and will likely continue to be regardless of what this tired father has to say. However, like Charlie Brown running to kick the football, it always got pulled away. Booker just hasn’t been able to connect with voters, but on March 31st, his record-setting filibuster had done the trick. Charlie Brown had finally gotten the ball, but instead of kicking it, he spiked it into his own goal.

While I still think it was an effective way to rally people, it is worth noting that his speech did not prevent any legislation. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be helpful. He should have used the attention to help mobilize voters. Instead, Booker went on to vote yes to confirm Jared Kushner’s father, a convicted felon, as ambassador to France. The man hired a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law so he could blackmail him! He’s terrible, was pardoned by Trump in 2020, and Booker voted him in! But wait! He’s not done stepping on rakes!

Stand will hit bookshelves in November, and no, it’s not a third iteration of Stephen King’s seminal work. Cory Booker is putting out a book, called Stand, about his filibuster. The one that happened two months ago. It won’t even be a year before he tries to profit from it. I’ve never felt so disappointed, both in Booker for taking something that could have been uniting and making it ugly, and in myself for thinking his intentions were good to begin with. Instead, it feels like he took our want and need for a leader and used it to get clicks, bucks, and soundbites.

I understand wanting to benefit from making your mark in history, but good lord, we don’t even know if what you did was successful yet, dude. There’s a good chance the government may not even exist in three years. Give it five more and I can’t guarantee you that books will exist! But you want to put out a book that can’t be longer than a CVS receipt before the smoke has even settled? Were you writing it beforehand? Have you been trading strategies with Jake Tapper?! What are you doing?!?!

There are Democratic politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chris Van Hollen who are trying to use their platform to make real change, and hopefully, more will follow their lead. But it’s difficult to get voters to give a shit when people like Cory Booker are throwing the goodwill they’ve garnered in the garbage. We should expect it from the Frankenstein Monster in shorts and a hoodie, but I expected better from Cory Booker.