Shakes, A Large And Aesthetic Man@TheFatAmerican
I want to comment on John Cornyn losing his primary because I go to DC parties where I meet establishment guys and I know how they think.
Senate Republicans think they are the reason Republicans won in 2024. They think they’re the GOP’s secret sauce.
You think the GOP rode Trump’s coattails. They think Trump road their coattails.
In this world, Republicans won because Democrats went too far. Woke was too crazy. Republicans were moderate and sensible. Now, they have to keep the party that way or Republicans will make the same mistake the Democrats made.
They think in very outdated terms. Republicans will lose in 2026 because the incumbent party always loses. This is a political “rule”. They are 100% certain Republicans will lose. Therefore, anything Trump does to try to win the midterms is actually cope. You’re talking crazy. Crazy is bad.
SAVE? Deportations? That’s crazy. Crazy is bad.
“But if you redistrict and pass voter ID Republicans will win!”
Senate Republicans are not thinking like that. They’re thinking you’re nuts.
Passing bills, making law? They think that whatever mandate they had was squandered by Trump over controversies like Minneapolis and posting too many memes on Twitter. The GOP looks too crazy now. Well try again next time.
They’re actually doing us a favor. By doing nothing they’re protecting us from our own excesses. They’re helping us not look crazy. We had better thank them.
When you think of MAGA, you think of Donald Trump and reindustrialization and deporting illegal immigrants.
When they think of MAGA, they think of Marjorie Taylor Greene. They think of Roy Moore losing Alabama in 2018. They think of “grab them by the pussy”. They think of “they’re eating the dogs”. They think of Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz and Alex Jones. They think of crazy people doing stupid things.
So, in every election since 2016, and maybe even before that, it’s Establishment Republicans who have saved the ticket from the worst excesses of Donald Trump and the Republican base.
That is what Senate Republicans mean when they say they want to “govern”. They want to pass budgets and workshop foreign policy.
That is why they still won’t implement Trump’s agenda. They think it is deeply unpopular, or will become unpopular even if it temporarily polls well. They think Trump only won because they saved his bacon.
So, John Cornyn.
John Cornyn lost because the base is deeply unhappy with Senate Republican leadership. Republican voters would probably replace a majority of Senate Republicans if you simply took a straw poll.
Senate Republicans know this, but think that Republicans voters almost always “come to their senses” because we all know Republicans can’t afford to be crazy. Democrats lose when they’re crazy. Republicans will lose the same way.
Sometimes the base has to be coerced or told what to do. That’s why they have to spend $100M propping up Cornyn.
Cornyn’s loss is shocking to them because it doesn’t make sense:
* Trump has “no reason” for endorsing Paxton over Cornyn. It’s crazy for Trump to do this. Senate Republicans save Trump again and again and this is how he repays them.
* The voters are out of control. The base is “supposed to” vote for Republicans anyways, so they should know we have to support moderates who can win. The fact that the voters don’t know this is more proof that Senate Republicans are the smartest people in the room.