Sen. Cory Booker — in hour 20 of a marathon speech on the Senate floor to protest the Republican budget and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts being implemented by the Trump administration — railed against what he called the “Disneyfication” of U.S. history.
“We have to redeem the dream. We have to excite people again. He, in the highest office of our land, wants to divide us against ourselves; wants to make us afraid; wants to make us fear so much that we’re willing to violate people’s fundamental rights,” the Democrat from New Jersey exclaimed. “We’re willing to go after the speech on college campuses. We’re willing to go after law firms, go after the freedom of the press. Don’t let him do that. Don’t become like him.”
“Be an American that says, I look to the future and I’m excited. Yes, things are tough right now — they’re hard, they’re scary, they’re hurting, but we can overcome this,” Booker pleaded. “American history, if it’s nothing else, it is a perpetual testimony to the achievement of impossible things against impossible odds.”
“We are a nation that is great not because the people that are trying to whitewash our history — to remove great people, Native Americans, Black people, and women from our military websites. I don’t want a Disneyfication of our history,” the senator continued passionately. “I don’t want a whitewashed history. I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness.”
“And so, what do I want people to do?” Booker asked rhetorically in the Senate chambers. “It starts with us, man, and you’re doing it. I’ve seen courage of my colleagues. We’re doing it, but we have to do more.”
“And I’m sorry, I’m not gonna be a politician that’s gonna say, ‘We are gonna do more for you,’” he added. “I’m gonna be a politician, I’m gonna be a leader, that demands more from America.”
