Finally, a Democratic Party leader who will treat us like adults

If I don’t get a full night’s sleep, I can’t function. I’m a wreck for the next two days. Yet Cory Booker, of New Jersey, stood on the floor of the United States Senate to give a speech that lasted 25 hours. He broke Strom Thurmond’s record, a feat made sweeter by the fact that Thurmond was a Dixiecrat who was trying to stop Black people like Booker from having a say in democracy, much less being a US senator.

It was a heroic achievement that, according to MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown, is lighting up the Democratic base.