On March 31, Sen. Cory Booker began his over 25-hour Senate speech “with the intention of getting in some good trouble.” The speech was the senator’s way of criticizing America’s current state, calling out the so-far embarrassing job Donald Trump has done as president and expressing the concerns of everyday Americans — reading letters from “terrified people.”

While Booker’s speech was not a filibuster, a political tactic in which members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation to delay a decision, it was a pivotal moment in recent politics. Recently, it seems as though Democrats have completely lost direction of where to move from here and Republicans are allowing the president and executive branch to do whatever they please. On top of all of that, it seems like America is more divided than ever.

Booker touched on many topics during his day-long speech. Issues like Trump’s economic disaster class, Elon Musk, using money to influence the government, the cutting of entire government programs without the consent of Congress and many other concerns. His speech set the record for the longest speech in Senate history at 25 hours and five minutes.

An ironic thing about Booker’s record-breaking speech length is that the past record holder was Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond who, in 1957, gave a filibuster opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes. It only feels fitting that a Black man broke the record of a racist attempting to preserve the plight of Black people in America. 

During a time when the Democratic Party seems to be completely out of the loop, defeated and unsure, Booker looks to restore hope in the party. He seems to have taken up the unofficial role as leader of the Democrats, and now we must watch and see where Booker and the party move from here in their attempts to combat what looks like democracy backsliding into an authoritarian regime in America.