And Elon wishes he didn’t go to Wisconsin
There is so much bad news happening in politics on a daily basis that sometimes you feel as if you’ve been physically pummeled by it. The Trump administration’s “shock and awe” campaign to overwhelm the country with one extreme policy after another, dismantling most of the government institutions that make America a first world country, is extraordinarily punishing. You can’t blame people for opting to tune out a bit and care for their emotional well-being.
I obviously can’t do that because it’s my job to pay attention but I have to admit that I find myself fighting pessimism if not total despair. It’s not my nature to feel that way but after last November and everything that’s happened since it’s been hard for me to find my usual resilience. This has been especially difficult as I’ve watched the leaders of the Democratic Party appear to be paralyzed in the face of their defeat and read what seems like hundreds of election postmortems that indicate that the Party is facing years in the wilderness despite the fact that Trump only won by 1.5% and didn’t even reach a majority.( I haven’t seen such energetic self-flagellation since 1984 when Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan by 18 points and only won 13 electoral votes — his own state.)
It’s just so hard to accept that after January 6th and all his criminal behavior that people would actually restore him to the White House and even worse that he and his henchmen would call that puny win a mandate. But that’s what they’ve done and it’s felt as if we’re all just bystanders watching as they take Elon Musk’s metaphorical chainsaw to everything that’s good about America and celebrate our society’s darkest predilections.
I made a promise to myself that I was not going to get my hopes up about elections after all that. No more hopium for me. I said that I would certainly root for Democrats to win wherever possible and would do what I could to make that happen. But I just couldn’t let myself pore over polling and racehorse analysis anymore or allow myself to put too much stock in any individual victories.
I also pledged that I would not put my faith in Democratic leaders to show any creativity or inspiration. Whatever will get the party and the out of its funk is going to have to come from the ground up not the top down
During the Trump years the off-year elections have been the exciting bellwethers of the Resistance. In the past I would have been gleefully reading everything I could about the Pennsylvania state house races and following what was going on down in Florida in the two deep red GOP seats that might just be upsets. Not this year. I made a mental note, crossed my fingers that it would go well and just decided to wait and see what happened. The big Wisconsin Supreme Court race piqued my interest but I didn’t look too closely, having spent one too many late nights waiting for the Waukesha returns and I just couldn’t face it.
Well, I’m here to tell you that yesterday changed everything, for me at least. As I said, I have not put much faith in the leaders in DC, especially since they caved on the Continuing Resolution a couple of weeks ago. Unlike some people I didn’t disparage them for holding little rallies in front of the agencies where Elon Musk’s DOGE boys were swinging their wrecking balls. They were trying things, and that’s important. But for the most part they’ve just seemed ineffectual. Until now.
On Monday evening New Jersey Senator Cory Booker began a marathon floor speech to break the record that the odious Dixiecrat Strom Thurman set when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act on 1957 for 24 hours and 17 minutes. The symbolism of Booker, a Black Senator, doing that was obvious and excellent under our current circumstances where the Trump administration is doing everything it can to erase the story of racial minorities in American life. But I had no idea how thrilling it would be to see him stand there for what turned out to be 25 hours and 4 minutes and lay out the case against what Trump and the Republicans are doing. He opened his speech by saying:
“These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”
Apparently, it thrilled a lot of people. According to The Hill, “more than 350 million people liked the speech on TikTok live, as the senator approached 25 hours of holding the floor in the Senate chamber.” Hundreds of thousands of people watched it on C-SPAN. CNN and MSNBC all carried portions of it live throughout the afternoon. And what he said was great. No reading from the phone book or “Green Eggs and Ham.” No matter when you tuned in he was telling it like it is, for 25 straight hours with passion, insight, inspiration and empathy, like something out of a Frank Capra movie.
25 hours and 5 minutes. Cory Booker just gave the longest Senate speech of all time to protest Trump.
— The Recount (@therecount) April 2, 2025
Dozens of letters, plenty of tears — here’s just a small snapshot of the NJ senator’s marathon floor speech: pic.twitter.com/6Z6xpvibhm
And then came the election returns. The two Florida races were won by Republicans as expected and by about 15 points, half the margin Trump received last November. But the big one in Wisconsin was a banger. I’d certainly paid attention in recent days to Elon Musk’s antics there where he poured more than $20 million into the right wing candidate’s campaign and handed out million dollar checks along with other cash goodies. He made the race a referendum on himself even turning up in person on Sunday telling people that it would be the end of America if the liberal won.
That didn’t work out for him. The liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, won by 10 points.
The upshot is that Musk’s threats to spend millions to punish rogue Republicans in primaries and Democrats in the general may not be quite as ominous as previously thought. The more people get to know him, the less they like what they see.
And even Trump’s clout may be more diminished than he realizes:
I couldn’t help but remember that the Democrats lost 63 seats in 2010, the Tea Party year when all those people were showing up at town halls to protest. It happens.
I still haven’t completely let out that big breath I took in last November but I’m starting to feel like the country is waking up to the reality of what’s going on and the Democrats are offering some leadership and the grassroots energy that’s going to be needed to fight this fight. I don’t think I’ll be smoking any hopium any time soon, but I can feel some optimism and energy rising. I’ll take it.
Salon