{"id":139732,"date":"2025-05-28T21:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T21:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139732\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T21:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T21:40:10","slug":"democrats-are-once-again-being-embarrassing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139732\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats are once again being embarrassing."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"21\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb828toi000w3b73gmtkgb9z@published\"><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/theslatest?utm_source=slate&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=article_plain_text_topper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\ufeffSign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"93\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb828ltu000t8gm4gy73rorb@published\">When New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker delivered the <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/04\/politics-democrats-analysis-cory-booker-filibuster-lessons.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">longest speech in Senate history<\/a> in April, to protest the cuts to public services enacted by Donald Trump and Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency group, people were inspired. Across the United States, at water coolers and in the bars that are somehow occupied during weekday daylight hours by a diverse crowd of patrons watching a single television, citizens asked themselves: Is this the turning point, the moment when the wave begins to recede? When a party\u2014and a country\u2014finally begins to Stand Up for Itself?<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"201\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb84c5bs00253b73vmxjaw9s@published\">Well, the answer to that was no. Since his speech, Booker has voted with Republicans to confirm one of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/01\/charles-kushner-jared-father-trump-pardon-ambassador-france.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comprehensively corrupt individuals in American public life<\/a> to an ambassadorship and to pass a cryptocurrency bill that will give a <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2025\/05\/cryptocurrency-democrats-trump-industry-genius-act-stablecoin-bill.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">major boost to Donald Trump\u2019s personal crypto business<\/a> while leaving the industry as a whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.banking.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/updatedgeniusanalysis.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dangerously underregulated and liable to cause a systemic crash<\/a>. (The latter link goes to an analysis issued by the Democratic Party\u2019s own Banking Committee staff.) The DOGE and DOGE-adjacent dismantling of services related to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/27\/health\/covid-vaccines-children-pregnant-women-rfk-jr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vaccines<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2025\/05\/extreme-weather-elon-musk-donald-trump-doge-cuts-fema-noaa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disaster relief<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/05\/22\/upshot\/nsf-grants-trump-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scientific research<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/05\/27\/trump-team-orders-stop-to-new-student-visa-interviews-as-it-weighs-expanding-social-media-vetting-00370501\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the U.S.\u2019s general preeminence as a center of global innovation and prosperity<\/a> have continued. The air traffic control system at Newark airport, in Booker\u2019s own state, is evidently running on <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/video-clips\/5321449-sean-ducey-briefs-airport-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two tin cans and a piece of string that broke in 1993<\/a>. Democrats lost a vote in the narrowly divided House after a 74-year-old member died of the cancer he had already been diagnosed with when the party <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/democratic-party-connolly-gerontocracy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">named him ranking member of the Oversight Committee in January<\/a>. The congressional resistance to Trump is doing whatever the opposite of firing on all cylinders is. It is \u2026 failing on all cylinders? Freezing on all canisters?<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/03\/chuck-schumer-democrats-government-shutdown.html\" class=\"recirc-line__content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/78d3c117-f972-4d12-831e-d69c72d9465d.jpeg\" width=\"141\" height=\"94\"   alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n          Mary Harris<br \/>\n        Why Senate Democrats Were Caught Flat-Footed<br \/>\n        <b class=\"slate-link--bold recirc-line__read-more\">Read More<\/b>\n      <\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"88\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb85lgdk002p3b731e2gxzk5@published\">However! Cory Booker is turning his speech <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cory-booker-senate-marathon-speech-stand-book-ffa9af6135716e5b354fb2969744caad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">into a book<\/a>! Congratulations to him; it will be released in November. \u201cThis book is about the virtues vital to our success as a nation and lessons we can draw from generations of Americans who fought for them,\u201d Booker says in a statement. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cory-booker-senate-marathon-speech-stand-book-ffa9af6135716e5b354fb2969744caad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cover<\/a> appears to depict the massive crowd surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington, an event at which Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for the passage of legislation supported by cryptocurrency lobbyists.<\/p>\n<ol class=\"in-article-recirc__list\">\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/05\/donald-trump-illegal-supreme-court-john-roberts-rule-law.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>            This One SCOTUS Ruling Unleashed the Trump Chaos We\u2019re Living In Now. Will John Roberts Do Anything About It?<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/05\/trump-economy-tariffs-harvard-big-beautiful-bill-deficit.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n            This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n<p>            Ah, So We\u2019re Back to Making America a Pariah State With No Economy<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/05\/trump-america-1930s-germany-dual-state.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n            This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n<p>            The Way Trump\u2019s America Most Closely Resembles 1930s Germany<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2025\/05\/jfk-files-assassination-release-date-declassified.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n            This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n<p>            Trump\u2019s JFK Files Release Didn\u2019t Interest the Conspiracy-Heads Much. But I Found Something in There That Changes Everything.<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"88\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb865yr7003q3b73jnpu8nvj@published\">In publishing a call-to-arms-type book about politics this year, Booker joins House Minority Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/ABCs-Democracy-Hakeem-Jeffries\/dp\/1538770369\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> and Senate Minority Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Antisemitism-America-Warning-Chuck-Schumer\/dp\/1538771624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chuck Schumer<\/a>, both of whom also held their positions of caucus leadership during the period in which Democrats failed to bring Trump to trial for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection and greased the rails for the renomination of Joe Biden, who, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/13\/books\/review\/originial-sin-jake-tapper-alex-thompson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it now turns out<\/a>, was probably experiencing cognitive decline to an extent that was evident for years to all the people who were interacting with him privately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"85\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cmb865ixg00363b73k22dr24w@published\">To be fair, the Democrats in Congress have very little leverage, and if getting things done from the minority were easy, they would have done it by now. On the other hand, taking time off from \u201cthe fight\u201d to promote a low-effort inspirational book about successful fights that occurred in the past is, ironically, not how most successful fights are conducted, at least according to my understanding of the historic achievements discussed in a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cory_Booker%27s_marathon_speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notable recent Senate speech that is being turned into a book<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>          <img alt=\"\" class=\"newsletter-signup__img\" hidden=\"\" data-src-light=\"https:\/\/dot.cdnslate.com\/static\/media\/components\/newsletter-signup\/the-slatest.49f353b.png\" data-src-dark=\"https:\/\/dot.cdnslate.com\/static\/media\/components\/newsletter-signup\/the-slatest-dark.ca73d21.png\" width=\"130\" height=\"58.7\"\/><\/p>\n<p>      Sign up for Slate&#8217;s evening newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ufeffSign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,8179,60656,22299,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-139732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-cory-booker","11":"tag-democrats","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114587633449728938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}