Critics on the left and the right called out Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech this week for being “performative.” But what’s that all about?
Performance matters. Nobody wants to listen to a politician rattle off a list of statistical explanations. When you speak to people about something important, you need to make them feel a certain way, not just think a certain way. Otherwise, they are not going to act.
That goes for Booker holding the Senate floor for 25 hours (and making C-SPAN must-see TV), and that also goes for you, trying to convince your friends and neighbors to get together to go out to a protest if they’ve never been before. And that’s what we talked to political sage Anat Shenker-Osorio about this afternoon, along with what to make of the victory in the Wisconsin supreme court election, how to talk about the tariffs (and how to avoid the trap of explaining too much), why the Democrats missed the mark on the budget, and how to plan for the Hands Off! protests this coming weekend. As with anything Shenker-Osorio has to say, you won’t want to miss it.
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A programming note: More Live conversations!
Join us again next week for two great live discussions. On Tuesday, April 8, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we’ll be speaking with the author, documentarian, and political commentator Joy-Ann Reid, and on Thursday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, the philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will join us. We hope to see you for both!
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