Letters from an American - April 1, 2025

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

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April 1st, 2025. Today, Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, made history. For more than 25 hours, he held the floor of the Senate, not reading from the phone book or children's literature as some of his predecessors have done, but delivering a coherent, powerful speech about the meaning of America and the ways in which the Trump regime is destroying our democracy. On the same day that John Hudson of the Washington Post reported that members of Donald Trump's National Security Council, including National Security Advisor Mike Walz, have been skirting presidential records laws and exposing national security by using Gmail accounts to conduct government

business. And the same day that mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services gutted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, or the NIH, and the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, Booker launched a full-throated defense of the United States of America. Booker began his marathon speech at 7 o'clock on the evening of March 31st with little fanfare. In a video recorded before he began, he said that he had been hearing from people

all over my state and indeed all over the nation, calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different, to cause, as John Lewis said, good trouble. And that includes me. On the floor of the Senate, Booker again invoked the late Representative John Lewis of Georgia,

who had been one of the original freedom rioters challenging racial segregation in 1961, and whose skull law enforcement officers fractured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965, as Lewis joined the marchers on their way to Montgomery to demand their voting rights be protected. Booker reminded listeners that Lewis was famous for telling people to get in good trouble, necessary trouble, help redeem the soul of America.

Booker said that in the months since Trump took office, he has been asking himself, how am I living up to his words? Tonight I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis, and I believe

that not in a partisan sense," he said, because so many of the people that have been reaching out to my office in pain, in fear, having their lives upended, so many of them identify themselves as Republicans. Standing for the next 25 hours and five minutes without a break to use the restroom and pausing only when colleagues asked questions to enable him to rest his voice, Booker called out the Trump administration's violations of the Constitution and detailed the ways in which the administration is hurting Americans. Farmers have lost government contracts, putting them in a financial crisis. Cuts to environmental protections that protect clean air and water are affecting Americans' health. Housing is unaffordable and the administration is making things worse.

Cuts to education and medical research and national security breaches have made Americans less safe. The regime accidentally deported a legal resident because of administrative error, and now says it cannot get him back. These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such," he said.

This is our moral moment. This is when the most precious ideas of our country are being tested. Where does the Constitution live? On paper or in our hearts? Throughout his speech, Booker emphasized the power of the American people. He told their stories and read their letters, and he urged them to stand up for the country. In this democracy, he said, the power of people is greater than the people in power. He emphasized the power of the

people by calling out South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who until today held the record for the longest Senate speech, a filibuster he launched in 1957 to try to stop the passage of that year's Civil Rights Act. Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes, but unlike Booker, who used his time to make a powerful and coherent case. But unlike Booker, who used his time to make a powerful

and coherent case for reclaiming American democracy, Thurman filled time with tactics like reading from an encyclopedia. But, Booker noted, Thurman's attempt to stop racial equality failed. After he ended his filibuster, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and black Americans and their allies used it to demand the equal protection

of the law, including the right to vote. I'm not here because of his speech, Booker said. I'm here despite his speech. I'm here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful. It is time to heed the words of the man I began this whole thing with, John Lewis. I beg folks to take his example of his early days when he made himself determined to show his love for his country at a time the country didn't love him. To love this country so much, to be such a patriot,

that he endured beatings savagely on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at lunch counters, on freedom rides. He said he had to do something. He would not normalize a moment like this. He would not just go along with business as usual. He wouldn't know how to solve it, but there's one thing that he would do

that I hope we all can do that I think I did a little bit of tonight. He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let's be bolder in America with a vision that inspires, with hope. It starts with the people of the United States of America. That's how this country started.

We the people. Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening. Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening. Let's get back to our founding documents. Those imperfect geniuses had some very special words at the end of the Declaration of Independence when our founders said, we must mutually pledge, pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We need that now from all Americans. This is a moral moment.

It's not left or right, it's right or wrong. Let's get in good trouble. My friend, Madam President, I yield the floor. According to Washington Post technology reporter, Drew Harwell, before he was through, Booker's speech had been liked on TikTok 400 million times. The people spoke today in special elections. Republican candidates in Florida won by about 14 points each

in two US House races, but just five months ago, Republicans won those seats by 30 and 37 points. It appears that voters are angry at the Republican Party. In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court race showed a similar dynamic. The candidate endorsed by President Trump and backed by more than 20 million dollars from Elon Musk lost the race to his opponent, Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford. Musk had campaigned in the state for Crawford's opponent, handing out two one million dollar checks and saying that the

election could determine the future of America and Western civilization. Crawford won by about 10 points. As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, Crawford said in her victory speech, I never could have imagined that I'd be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.