Cory Booker: Close-Up
By Amaya Oswald & D.S. Mitchell
Intro To Cory Booker
As of February 1st, 2019, Cory Booker is officially running for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination. As of March 20, 2019, he now makes up one of sixteen Democrats running. And there are at least 2-3 other hopefuls still on the sidelines, including former Vice President, Joe Biden.
Middle Class Cory
Cory Anthony Booker was born in 1969, in Washington, D.C. His parents were among the first black executives hired at IBM. Cory grew up in a strong middle class home in Harrington Park, New Jersey. His family was religious. It is easy to imagine. Sometimes when he is giving a stump speech you can almost feel the revival coming on. All we need is a little foot stomping to make it happen.
Education
Cory Booker seems to be a bit of an overachiever in my eyes. Cory was a damn good student and a damn good athlete. He was good enough in football to be named to the 1986 USA Today ALL-USA High School Team. He continued to play football and was a tight end for Stanford. Even in this more competitive environment Cory was named to the PAC-10 Academic Team. Additionally he found time to be elected class president, at least once. He earned a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Master’s in Sociology. He got a Rhodes Scholar appointment and received an Honors Degree in U.S. History. And he topped all that off with a Juris Doctorate in 1997, from Yale Law School. WOW. That deserves some respect.
Stunt Man
All wrapped up in top student, top athlete, top candidate there is a bit of a stunt man and carnival barker. Cory Booker in 1998 won a seat on the Newark, N.J. Municipal Council. While he was councilman he went on a 10 day hunger strike and set up a tent in a crime infested neighborhood to highlight the city’s drug problem .
Mayor of Newark
He tried for the mayor position in 2002, but lost. He tried again in 2006 and won becoming the 36th Mayor in Newark’s history. While Mayor, Booker would often go out with ‘first responders to answer calls. On one occasion he ran into a burning building and brought out a woman suffering from smoke inhalation. On another occasion he responded to a senior citizen’s home and proceeded to shovel the man’s sidewalk. And who could forget when the mayor discovered a freezing dog. A hands-on activist, Booker literally protested Newark’s urban development plan. Are these actions based on genuine human concern, or just attention seeking behavior? I imagine, at least a little of both.
Definitely, Slight of Hand
Is Cory Booker, a true Democrat or just a slick and very smart opportunist? Cory was once a fighter for the Jewish cause, demanding that the American embassy move to Jerusalem and was against any mechanism that propped up the Iranian regime. More recently, the progressive activist Cory Booker has been against the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, while railing against Trump’s rejection of the Iran Nuclear deal. Some might call this adaptable, workable and pliable. Others might call it flip flopping,
From Back Home
David Harsanyi writing in the New York Times takes a series of swings at Senator Booker and lands several solid blows in his 9/7/2019 article, The Cory Booker you see has always been an imaginary creation. “Those who have followed Booker’s political career have long claimed that it is merely a long string of theatrics, fables, and malleable positions. As an optics-obsessed lightweight mayor of Newark, they contend, he spent large swaths of his time collecting lucrative speaking fees to lecture others about his imaginary accomplishments in his crime ridden city.” Wow. I mean that is really bubble bursting.
Policies & Positions
Booker has vocally supported numerous progressive policies including, abortion rights, women’s access to affordable birth control, higher taxes on the top 1%, and has always supported same-sex marriage — but what issues, policies, and beliefs ultimately mean the most to him? According to his just-launched campaign, Cory Booker wants a campaign that unites. This is almost the exact opposite of fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders’s motivation for running; in a recent interview announcing his candidacy for 2020, Bernie expressed his own reasons without hesitation — “It is imperative that Donald Trump be defeated.”
Together
In opposition, Cory Booker’s Campaign home page states, “The lines that divide us are nowhere near as strong as the ties that bind us. When we join together and work together —we will rise together,” and in a recent campaign video, Booker stated a similar message. “Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose. Together, America, we will rise,” he said.
We Will Rise
One might wonder whether the Maya-Angelou-esque “we will rise” will be Senator Booker’s campaign slogan. As for policies, we don’t know yet what Senator Cory Booker will push for the most. Most recently, however, Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill that would legalize marijuana in all states. Most of the other Democratic contenders for the 2020 presidential nomination and his friends in the Senate, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders, agree with his efforts on the cannabis front.
Partisan Criticisms
On 9/4/2018 the Senate opened the hearings on the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. During the Senate hearings Booker asked Brett Kavanaugh several smart, and penetrating questions. However, elements of his questioning have been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats
for being overly “dramatic.” A Fox News feature titled a video about the issue of unreleased documents, “Booker’s self-produced document drama.”
“A New Low”
In reference to Senator Booker’s actions at the Kavanaugh hearing the New York Post published an article about Cory Booker stating “Sen. Cory Booker’s desperate attempts to win the love of the Democratic base hit a new low Thursday, with an utterly pathetic fit of oh-so-dramatic … fakery.”
Where Is It All Headed?
It’s true that Cory Booker’s pursuit for what’s right often manifests to people who have different beliefs as a “fit” of “drama,” but I think Cory Booker is just tuned in and passionate. Instead of shouting his feelings or anger — like the temperament of someone we used to know *cough, cough* Brett Kavanaugh — he remains undefeated, passionately arguing his perspective.
His Potential Profile In The 2020 Race
His unusually passionate and calm temperament in the Senate and his wish for us to rise in unity is perhaps the direction Cory Booker will take going into the 2020 race, though it is difficult to know — I guess, we’ll just have to wait and see.
References:
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker
https://thehill.com/people/cory-booker
https://nytimes.com/2018/09/07 the-cory-booker-you-see-has-always-been-an-imaginary-creation
