Beginning on Monday night, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took to the Senate floor with a vow: he would speak for as long as he was physically able to in protest of the recent actions taken by the Trump Administration. As of writing, he is still speaking, and has been speaking for about 17 hours—a feat of endurance, sure, but more importantly, a rare show of spine from a Democratic Party that often feels like it’s waiting for permission to fight.

“This is not normal,” Booker said as he began. “And it should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

He’s right. What we’re living through is not normal. A president empowered by a Tartuffe-esque fringe advisor is slashing into the social safety net with reckless abandon. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has begun gutting Social Security field offices. Cuts to healthcare and public education loom. Vice President Vance says we have “no choice” but to annex Greenland. And somehow, most of the outrage feels like it’s coming from ordinary citizens, not the people we sent to Washington to speak for us.

Booker’s speech isn’t a filibuster in the technical sense because he isn’t holding the space in opposition of the passing of specific legislation. He’s just talking. Talking about what the country is going through. Reading letters from constituents. Inviting us to remember that resistance is about standing when no one else will.

It’s possible this will be a record-setting event. The record for the longest speech belongs to Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The only currently-sitting Senate member who has spoke for longer than this is Rafael “Ted” Cruz, who filibustered against the passing of the Affordable Care Act for 21 hours and 19 minutes.

Over the course of the night and into the morning, Democratic colleagues came to the floor to ask questions and offer support. Senators like Elizabeth Warren, Raphael Warnock, Amy Klobuchar, and Chuck Schumer took brief turns speaking, allowing Booker some precious moments of reprieve without giving up the floor.

The bar for moral leadership is on the floor. But for once, someone didn’t just step over it.

Booker invoked John Lewis and Strom Thurmond in the same breath, reminding the chamber that history doesn’t turn because senators suddenly “see the light”.

“We got civil rights,” he said, “because people marched for it, sweat for it, and John Lewis bled for it.”

Booker knows that his speech won’t single-handedly stop Trump’s agenda. But what it might do is reignite something that’s been flickering out: the idea that Democrats can—and should—fight. Not just in committees or quiet negotiations, but publicly. Visibly.

Booker has been in the Senate since 2013, ran for president in 2020, and dropped out. But in this moment, he’s done something that cuts through the noise.

Watching Booker speak for seventeen hours straight feels like a relief. Not because it fixes anything, but because someone still cares enough to at least be exhausted in public.

The question now is: will anyone else in his party join him? Or will we look back on this as a lone act of resistance?

Standing alone is brave. But standing together is how things change.