Over the course of 25 hours and 5 minutes, Cory Booker points the way to oppose Trump’s abuses of power | Editorial

Sen. Cory Booker’s marathon speech highlighting Donald Trump’s reprehensible initiatives was a much-needed cannon shot for all Americans who believe in truth, justice, freedom, equality, the rule of law, and what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

The challenge now is whether the New Jersey senior senator’s tour de force performance — speaking and standing on the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes with no bathroom breaks — will stir the country from its constitutional slumber, or be a one-day viral wonder.

Other government, business, education, and religious faith leaders who have been silent or fallen in line must follow Booker’s lead and make a stand for American freedoms, rights, and values.

In just over two months, Trump has bulldozed over, through, and around the Constitution and the rule of law, undermining the freedoms, institutions, and world order generations of Americans fought and died for. Those democratic institutions and values fueled the peace and prosperity that set the country apart from the rest of the world.

Throughout the chaos, Republicans have almost uniformly pledged allegiance to their dear convicted and twice-impeached leader, while ignoring their sworn oath to uphold the Constitution and provide a check on Trump’s runaway presidential power.

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Meanwhile, Democrats have meekly muddled along, lacking bold leadership or a plan to combat Trump’s selling out of American values at home and abroad.

But many Americans are frightened and furious by what Trump — aided and abetted by unelected billionaire Elon Musk — has been doing by wrecking the economy, slashing government agencies, deporting migrants, undermining public health, harming the environment, dismantling higher education, chilling the First Amendment, cowing law firms, threatening judges, upending free trade, angering allies, cozying up to dictators, roiling financial markets, cutting medical research, shredding the rule of law, breaching national security, and appointing incompetent cronies to run vital departments.

Booker said he was moved to speak out after hearing from many people who reached out to his office in “pain” and “fear” from having their “lives upended,” including many who “identify themselves as Republicans.”

“These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such,” he said. Booker repeatedly referenced the late Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was beaten while marching for civil rights 60 years ago in Alabama, and often urged others to “get in good trouble.”

Booker urged Americans to stand up for their country. “The power of people is greater than the people in power,” he said.

That has been true so far, as evidenced by the many grassroots protests outside Musk’s Tesla dealerships. (Though violence and destruction of Tesla cars is not the answer.) Kudos to other groups such as Indivisible, MoveOn, and the 50501 movement for organizing protests against Trump’s actions in the Philadelphia region and across the country.

There have been positive signs many Americans have had enough of Trump’s authoritarian rule after roughly 70 days.

A small-town Democratic mayor won a major upset last week in a Pennsylvania state Senate race in a Lancaster County district that Republicans have controlled for decades, and that Trump won by 15 points in November.

A liberal judge in the swing state of Wisconsin easily won a seat on that state’s Supreme Court Tuesday, defeating a MAGA-hat-wearing Trump loyalist who received $25 million in support from Musk, who campaigned in the state, flooded his social media platform with disinformation about the race, and tried to buy votes with $1 million giveaways.

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Musk claimed Wisconsin would decide the trajectory of “Western civilization” and “the future of the world.” In the end, Trump’s message and Musk’s money were no good in the Badger State.

Americans must now build on the points of light coming from Booker and those recent elections.

There needs to be a permanent campaign with ads on TV and social media informing citizens about the Trump administration’s daily destruction, which on Tuesday included mass layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. (There was also a rare admission from the White House Tuesday that a Maryland man was wrongly deported to El Salvador, but will not be returned.)

Leaders at the state and local levels should help steer that ongoing effort along with voter education and registration efforts since control of the country runs through the Keystone State.

Booker called for a “bolder” vision that channels the founders’ goal of creating a more perfect union. As he eloquently put it: “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right, it’s right or wrong.”