Cory Booker

I’m a big believer that if America, if this country hasn’t broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough. Because there’s things that are savagely wrong in this country.

Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician currently serving as the junior United States Senator from New Jersey, in office since 2013. The first African-American U.S. Senator from New Jersey, he was previously the 36th Mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013. Before that Booker served on the Newark City Council for the Central Ward from 1998 to 2002.

Quotes

2012

• Lets you and I try to live on food stamps in New Jersey (high cost of living) and feed a family for a week or month. U game?
  • Fallon, Kevin (January 26, 2013). "Cory Booker Rescues a Freezing Dog & 9 Other Things He Has Saved". The Daily Beast. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 
    • Via Twitter, in response to a tweet asking "Why is there a family today that is ‘too poor’ to afford breakfast?" Booker would go on to do exactly that. He later told CBS that it had been a "terrible state of human existence", and continued "I'll be honest with you. I take so much for granted, even going to Starbucks and buying a cup of coffee is more than my daily food allowance right now," as quoted in Bailey, Holly (December 11, 2012). "Cory Booker’s week on food stamps: political ambition amid the burned sweet potatoes". Yahoo! News. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

2013

• The reality is we have to make sure that we have a military that’s prepared, but right now, we have more military spending than the next 10, 11, 12 countries combined, and we’ve got to start realizing that we can secure and protect ourselves, but also be responsible in the way that we do that," Booker said. And it’s not unpatriotic to say that we’re spending too much money. In fact, to me, that’s the patriotic thing to say.
  • From Real Time with Bill Maher, as quoted in Cory Booker says U.S. military spending is greater than the next 10-12 countries combined. PolitiFact (February 10th, 2013). Retrieved on 21 August 2018.

• We are brick city. We are like bricks themselves. We are strong. We are resilient. We are enduring.
  • When Cory’s gone. The Economist (August 17, 2013). Retrieved on 21 August 2018.

2014

Most people think that these high-density poor neighborhoods, predominately people of color, just came about through some accident of history, but they were the conscious creation [of institutional racism].

• Immediately I knew that was problematic [being paired on a television show with John Lewis]. Because the show starts with our bios, and it starts with, ‘John Lewis, hero of the civil rights movement stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. … He literally bled the southern soil red. And then it goes to me. ‘Cory Booker, riding his Big Wheel in affluent suburbia, falls off and skins his knee: He bled the New Jersey soil red.’ And so you are very aware if you were born after the civil rights movement, if you were born in my generation, that you stand on the shoulders of giants.
  • Kopan, Tal (February 26, 2014). "Black senators eye future generation". Politico. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• We prove worthy of the privileges that we have not by paying anything back, but by paying it forward.
  • Kopan, Tal (February 26, 2014). "Black senators eye future generation". Politico. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• I want to try to live my own values as consciously and purposefully as I can. Being vegan for me is a cleaner way of not participating in practices that don’t align with my values. … As soon as I said publicly that I was trying this experiment, so many vegans out there, hundreds and hundreds of people, have been reaching out to me with incredible support and encouragement as well as practical tips of how to do this without having to sacrifice that much in terms of the food and what I like. I've discovered some really delicious things—recipes, stores, and restaurants—that have made this transition far easier. … There's too much judgment out there. Really what we need to be doing is just all of us finding our own paths towards living the best lives we can live as clearly and boldly in accordance with our own personal values.
  • "Talking Tofurky With Newly Vegan Cory Booker", interview with Vlad Chituc, in The Daily Beast (26 November 2014)

2016

• Cynicism about America’s current state of affairs is ultimately a form of surrender.
  • In Booker, Cory (2017). United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-96518-4. , as quoted in Yanklowitz, Rabbi Shmuly (March 3, 2016). "Standing Together In the Era of National Division: Review of United by Cory Booker". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• We make a grave mistake when we assume this spirit of connectedness is automatic or inevitable. It is not a birthright. A united country is an enduring struggle. It takes collective work and individual sacrifice. It is not enough to call on others or wait for a leader to emerge who will exalt our national values. I believe this is the question we face, as citizens of this nation: what will we do to affirm this most critical American virtue?
  • In Booker, Cory (2017). United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-96518-4. , as quoted in Yanklowitz, Rabbi Shmuly (March 3, 2016). "Standing Together In the Era of National Division: Review of United by Cory Booker". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• Most people think that these high-density poor neighborhoods, predominately people of color, just came about through some accident of history, but they were the conscious creation [of institutional racism].
  • In Cory Booker encourages students to use their moral imaginations to work for good. Stanford University (February 24, 2016). Retrieved on 21 August 2018., as quoted in Ross, Janell (July 25, 2016). "Six noteworthy things about Cory Booker". The Washington Post. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• What would you do if you could not fail. Answer that question and do that.
  • Quoting his mother, in Cory Booker encourages students to use their moral imaginations to work for good. Stanford University (February 24, 2016). Retrieved on 21 August 2018., as quoted in Ross, Janell (July 25, 2016). "Six noteworthy things about Cory Booker". The Washington Post. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• I respect and value the ideals of rugged individualism and self-reliance. But rugged individualism didn’t defeat the British, it didn’t get us to the moon, build our nation’s highways, or map the human genome. We did that together.
  • Drabold, Will (July 26, 2016). "Read Cory Booker's Speech at the Democratic Convention". Time. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

2018

There is great dignity in work – and in America, if you want to provide for your family, you should be able to find a full-time job that pays a fair wage.

• When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power, it is a dangerous force.
  • Cory Booker blasts Republicans for amnesia over Trump's 'shithole' remark. Associated Press (2018-01-17). Retrieved on 2019-03-11.; Booker to Nielsen: Your Silence is Complicity. Associated Press Archive (2018-01-21). Retrieved on 2019-03-11.

• We say an oath that we are a nation of liberty and justice for all, but that’s just words. It’s a civic faith, but I’m one of these people that says before you, "tell me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people." Well, how are we living our civic gospel? How are we living our civic gospel that demands for us to reject the normalcy of injustice, the normalcy of apathy, the normalcy of indifference, and rise to the higher ground of activism, of engagement, of love?
  • Rutz, David (August 3, 2018). "Booker: Things Are ‘Savagely Wrong’ in America". The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• I’m a big believer that if America, if this country hasn’t broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough. Because there’s things that are savagely wrong in this country.
  • Rutz, David (August 3, 2018). "Booker: Things Are ‘Savagely Wrong’ in America". The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• I’m not here to tell folk just what they should know, I’m here to call on folk to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders. You are either complicit in evil, you are either contributing to wrong, or you are fighting against it.
  • In Bobic, Igor (June 26, 2018). "Cory Booker Suggests Supporting Brett Kavanaugh Makes One ‘Complicit’ In Evil". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• There is great dignity in work – and in America, if you want to provide for your family, you should be able to find a full-time job that pays a fair wage. The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously. Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day’s work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all workers.
  • In 11 ways Cory Booker is wooing progressives as he eyes a run for president in 2020. nj.com (August 19, 2018). Retrieved on 21 August 2018.

2019

• The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe. To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime– I urge you to pay attention.
  • 29 January 2019 regarding Jussie Smollett

• You encouraging me means more to me than you can imagine (After Jimmy Carter hoped Booker run for president).
  • Jimmy Carter tells Booker: 'I hope you run for president'. thehill (2019-01-20). Retrieved on 2019-03-11.; Starostinetskaya, Anna (2019-01-21). Jimmy Carter Backs Vegan Senator Cory Booker for President in 2020. vegnews. Retrieved on 2019-03-11.

• The "power of the people" is greater than the "people in power" ... Change does not come from Washington, it comes to Washington.
  • Cory Booker Discusses Family Separations at U.S. Mexico Border Wall ... 3:00. The View (1 February 2019). Retrieved on 12 February 2019.

• We are a part of this take-down culture where people are trying to twist your words.
  • [1]

• Sometimes you go in the pit before you go to the palace, right? You know? And that was the story of Saint Joseph ... Martin Luther King was slain, they wrote the words from Joseph's brothers when they threw Joseph in the well ... "Behold, here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him, and see what becomes of his dream". Now, King has fallen but his dream has not died, and we are the keepers of the dream. And so, do not give up hope, do not give up faith, alright?
  • Booker, Cory (2019-02-15). "In South Carolina last weekend I was reminded that even in our darkest moments of despair, we can never give up hope. We can never give up faith". Twitter. Retrieved on 2019-02-16. 

• Working Americans would tell you that the dignity of work is being stripped ... they are working harder than their parents and falling further behind ... while their salaries may moderately have gone up, what has gone up more is the cost of prescription drugs ... child care ... college ...
  • Cory Booker Tests Message Of Collaboration And Economic Equality In First Visit To New Hampshire. WGBH News. Retrieved on 2019-03-15.

• You are dipping into the Kool-aid and you do not even know the flavor (After Joe Biden criticized Booker's anti-crime work as Newark mayor).
  • During the 2nd Democratic debate (31 July 2019); Geoff Earle. Cory Booker mocks Joe Biden during angry clash over criminal justice as former VP accuses ex-mayor running RACIST police department. Daily Mail. 2019-08-01 Urban Dictionary

• We cannot let these conversations devolve into the impotent simplicity of "Who is or is not a racist?" Because, if the answer to the question "Do racism and white supremacy exist?" is "yes", then the real question is not "Who is or is not a racist?", but "Who is or is not doing something about it?"
  • Senator Cory Booker Speaks on Gun Violence and White Nationalism at Emanuel AME Church16:50. YouTube (2019-08-07).

• ... marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people ... the war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people.
  • During the 5th Democratic debate (20 November 2019) Nick Corasaniti, Cory Booker Jokes Biden ‘Might Have Been High’ When He Made Marijuana Comments. The New York Times. 2019-11-20

2020

• I don’t think most Americans realize that the way we raise animals is such a betrayal of the heritage of our grandparents. I don’t think they realize that … these big companies like Smithfield and Cargill and others have our American farmers now living like sharecroppers in constant debt, forced to follow their rules. I’ve watched the suffering in North Carolina of minority communities who live around Cafos and can no longer breathe their air … and I’ve seen workers in the meatpacking plants and how dangerous those plants are. Everybody is losing in this system – except for the massive corporations that have taken over the American food system.
  • 'A savagely broken food system': Cory Booker wants radical reform ... now. The Guardian, September, 15 2020

2022

• I got a chance to witness firsthand what I think many people in America can relate to, is when you show up in a room qualified, when you show up in a room with extraordinary expertise and credentials, there are a lot of Americans who know that hurt, that you are still going to be treated in a way that does not respect to you fully
  • During Ketanji Jackson senate confirmation hearings: 'This is not about racism. It's about decency’ (March 27, 2022)

Quotes about Cory Booker

• In reality, the story of nuclear power development in the US over the last 50 years is beyond pitiful and would not pass muster under any “normal” business plan. How the nuclear industry gets away with it remains baffling... President Obama... was no friend to the anti-nuclear movement.... he called for the inclusion of $55 billion for nuclear loan guarantees in his $3.8 trillion 2011 budget... Obama talked of “building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.” Kool-Aid thoroughly drunk, then. All of this should send an obvious message to the deaf ears of Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), the leading pro-nuclear evangelists in the U.S. Senate. Cardin’s power production credit bill actually has the gall to describe nuclear power as “zero-emission”, a lie that even Cardin’s own staffer was forced to concede in a recent meeting attended by Paul Gunter who called him out on it... Like the three not-so-wise monkeys, those Senators and their colleagues will acknowledge no negatives about nuclear power, even as the industry’s appalling litany of financial fiascoes and failures stares them in the face. They will forge right ahead, thus dooming to its own failure the very progress on climate change they claim to champion.
  • The Record-Breaking Failures of Nuclear Power, Linda Gunter, Counter Punch (24 September 2021)

• You have to learn to be black, and we don’t have time to teach you.
  • Sharpe James to Booker in 2002, as quoted in Cobb, Jelani (May 22, 2012). "Cory Booker: The Dilemma Of the New Black Politician". The New Yorker. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• Cory Booker has dedicated his life to the work of building hope and opportunity in communities where too little of either existed.
  • Barack Obama, as quoted in Ball, Molly (August 23, 2013). "Why Do Liberals Hate Cory Booker?". The Atlantic. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• He has done lots of stunts designed to make people aware of poverty, or at least to make people aware of Cory Booker's awareness of poverty.
  • Alex Pareene in Pareene, Alex (August 13, 2013). "Don’t vote for Cory Booker today". Salon. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. , as quoted in Ball, Molly (August 23, 2013). "Why Do Liberals Hate Cory Booker?". The Atlantic. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 

• The contrast between the Republicans’ laser-focus on creating jobs, allowing workers to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, and the safety of our communities, and the message of big-government socialism and open borders folks will hear at Netroots Nation from coastal elites like ... Cory Booker ... could not be more stark ... While Senator Cory Booker called the policies that created this windfall for workers “reckless, unjust, and just plain cruel,” Americans everywhere are seeing more money in their paychecks and new opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
  • Steve Scalise, in Netroots Nation Highlights Democrats’ Extreme Liberal Agenda. majoritywhip.gov. Retrieved on 21 August 2018.

• If Cory Booker is the future of the Democratic Party, they have no future! I know more about Cory than he knows about himself.
  • Senator Cory Booker Refuses to Hate Donald Trump ... 6:30. YouTube.com (2018-05-04).
  • Donald Trump via Twitter, as quoted in Usborne, David (July 26, 2016). "DNC 2016: Cory Booker dazzles as a star of the future with soaring evocation of the Democratic Party's values". The Independent. Retrieved on 21 August 2018. 
    • He responded, "I love Donald Trump. I don’t want to answer his hate with hate. I’m going to answer it with love. I’m not going to answer his darkness with darkness."
  • CNN, Eugene Scott. Cory Booker responds to Trump speech tweets. CNN. Retrieved on February 20, 2019.; Booker Responds to Trump: 'I Love You, Donald'. NBC4 Washington. Retrieved on 20 February 2019.

• I miss Kamala, I miss Cory. Though, I think Cory will be back!
  • Andrew Yang in the 6th Democratic debate (19 December 2019) Axelrod, Tal. Yang gives shout out to Booker. The Hill. 2019-12-19
    • When asked about the message sent to the voters by the field of candidates who are overwhelmingly white.

External links

• Senator Cory Booker official U.S. Senate website
• Cory Booker for Senate
• Cory Booker at DMOZ

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