{"id":95470,"date":"2025-04-07T16:12:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T20:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=95470"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:59","slug":"cory-booker-25-hour-senate-speech","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/cory-booker-25-hour-senate-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Interrupted: Cory Booker’s 25-Hour Senate Speech Calls for Collective Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Trump, Interrupted: Cory Booker's 25-Hour Senate Speech Calls for Collective Action\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

This article is republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Leckie<\/a> is a professor of English, and the Academic Director for Re.Climate: Centre for Climate Communication and Engagement at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At 7 p.m. on Day 71 of Donald Trump’s presidency, United States Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, rose to speak on the Senate floor. He did not cede his right to speech (“the right to recognition<\/a>“) until 25 hours later, at 8:05 p.m. the following day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the form of his speech resembled a filibuster<\/a> \u2014 a prolonged speech designed to delay or prevent legislation \u2014 Booker’s speech was not aimed at any proposed law. Instead he was responding to what he called a “time of crisis<\/a>” in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That crisis, in Booker’s view, is driven by the actions of the Trump administration, including executive orders and other actions that he argued are eroding democracy, exacerbating the climate crisis and dismantling programs that offer life-saving support to both Americans and people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booker set a record for the longest continuous speech in the U.S. Senate,<\/a> surpassing speeches by Ted Cruz in 2013 and Strom Thurmond in 1957<\/a>. He had no food, bathroom or sitting breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booker’s speech, both a physical feat and a call to action, has been much lauded<\/a>. But while the content of his speech and its calls for cross-aisle collaboration are admirable, as a literary critic, I believe the form of his speech deserves equal attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Booker delivered the speech helps to bring into focus his call for a participatory democracy \u2014 where everyone is actively involved \u2014 using two main strategies: interruption of the current norm (disruption), and an appeal to collaboration (working together).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The author of this article is a literary expert on political communication, especially with relation to climate change.<\/span>
\nStanford University Press<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Based on my work in the climate humanities, interruption<\/a> and working together<\/a> are among the most effective and necessary ways to generate political action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two forms of interruption<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two contrasting forms of interruption are important here: interruption that fosters reflection and interruption that discounts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German philosopher Walter Benjamin developed the concept of interruption<\/a> in the 1930s as a way to foster thinking in times of crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some types of theatre, for example, interrupt their story to break with conventions and remind viewers that they’re watching a play. Building on Benjamin’s idea of interruption, I’m interested in how interruption can work in our current era of political crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration practises the second form of interruption that discounts thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration’s technique of “flooding the zone<\/a>,” for example, produces new actions in such quick succession that the conditions for thinking are eviscerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump’s preferred mode of communication has also been social media<\/a>, known for its short and punchy<\/a> delivery. These communication strategies \u2014 flooding the zone and short social media posts \u2014 scatter attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the speed and volume of the Trump administration’s actions, it can feel impossible to respond to \u2014 let alone reflect on \u2014 every executive order, every overreach, every unconstitutional or illegal move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A communication shift?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Until recently, the U.S. Democratic Party has neither changed the form of their political practice nor the form of their communications<\/a> in any significant way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that shifted last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Booker chose to rise in the Senate, he adopted Benjamin’s version of interruption \u2014 by changing the form. In this case, through a congressional address with the time-honoured practice of not ceding the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His single, extended action of uninterrupted speech (except for questions and a prayer) was exactly the opposite of flooding the zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 25-hour speech commanded and held attention. It was exactly the opposite of a hastily dispatched social media post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He asked his audience to listen in a form that reminded them of what listening demands. Stopping. Paying attention. Thinking. Acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working together: \u2018We, the people’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Booker stood alone at the podium for over 25 hours but he did not act alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His speech is a powerful performance of collaboration and working together. This recognition of a collective debt to others is also mirrored in his repetition of the phrase “we, the people.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, too, the form of his speech is revealing. Literary critics pay attention to how documents open and close and how words are used and repeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first words<\/a> acknowledge his debt to the “pages \u2026the folks that work the door, the clerks, the Parliamentarians.” And his last words<\/a> return to this point, thanking again “the pages\u2026 the Parlimentarian staffs \u2026 the clerks \u2026the doorkeepers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the speech, he reminds his audience that the people are “stronger together<\/a>“. His words alone cannot stop the dismantling of democracy, he insists, but “we, the people” can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The form of his address is an expansive act of inclusion and working together. It incorporates questions to his audience, letters, poetry and literature, questions from the floor, community stories and historical examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two questions inform his speech overall: “Did you speak up?” and “what can I do?” (the first is repeated with variations 52 times and the second 36 times).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions invite connection, participation, response and more questions. Booker’s answer to the linked questions is to “stand up, speak up<\/a>” and promote the collective action of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One form of standing up and speaking up is writing letters to one’s political representatives. Over the course of his speech, Booker gave voice to these constituents and in doing so widened the circle of representation in Congress: “I am trying to elevate the voices<\/a>,” he said, “that don’t get to come to this place \u2014 voices I am hearing from, voices that identify themselves as a Republican veteran, a Democrat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letters he read generate connection, closed gaps, and, like questions, invite further responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booker’s recitation of poetry and literature was similarly inclusive and expansive. He used his platform to share Langston Hughes’s lines, “To save the dream for one \/ It must be saved for all<\/a>,” Alice Walker’s comment that, “the most common way people give up their power is not realizing they have it in the first place<\/a>,” and a translation from the Bantu language, “I am because we are<\/a>,” among many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bending the form<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In short, Booker bent the form of the congressional address to encourage “thousands of ignition points<\/a>,” thousands of creative ways to bend the form and work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joins his voice to those of his constituents, literary and historical figures, Americans past and future, and to others around the world in an effort, as he put it \u2014 adapting the words of Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> \u2014 “to bend the arc of our nation \u2026 toward justice<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The endurance and content of Booker’s speech is important, but its form most interrupted this moment of political upheaval, invited its listeners to notice and think, and offered examples of “coming together<\/a>” to support others, listen to their voices, share their stories and be “stronger together<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nCarleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At 7 p.m. on Day 71 of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, United States Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, rose to speak on the Senate floor. He did not cede his right to speech (“the right to recognition”) until 25 hours later, at 8:05 p.m. the following day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":95474,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-95470","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-expert-perspectives"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/95470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/95470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95478,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/95470\/revisions\/95478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=95470"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=95470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}