About 60% of Texas Republicans voted to end John Cornyn’s Senate career last Tuesday, but it wasn’t actually Cornyn they rejected. It was the crappy, do-nothing leadership of the Republican Senate that made “Waiting for Godot” look like “Fast and Furious.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ended up on virtually equal footing with Cornyn and is heading for a runoff precisely because Republican voters, not just in Texas, but across the country, are extremely angry about the GOP-controlled Senate’s inability to do, well, much of anything.
This righteous anger is why Paxton’s political play in the face of a runoff was so brilliant. He said that if the Senate were to pass the Save America Act and its voter ID provisions, he would bow out, sparing President Donald Trump from having to step in with a decisive endorsement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks at a news conference in Washington, DC, on October 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
For Cornyn, and more importantly for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, this created a crisis, a much-needed crisis even, as GOP voters stare across the desk at the Senate leadership, like the Bobs in “Office Space,” and wonder: If they can’t pass a bill with massive public support, what would they say they would do there?
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Thune responded Monday to the growing public clamor to pass the Save America Act in the silliest and most infuriating way possible, claiming that voters aren’t really angry, and that the furore is just a campaign by paid influencers.
The fact that Thune has not yet apologized for this is unbelievable. It is as condescending to working-class voters as anything any politician has ever said.
Does Thune think 60% of Texas Republicans voting against the Senate status quo is a sign that they think he’s doing a great job?
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That’s not it.
Across the country, Republican voters tell me they are apoplectic about the Senate. Yes, they understand the arcane 60-vote filibuster thing. They just don’t care. They want and need action from a body that refuses to act.
And it’s not just Paxton who knows deep in his heart how much Republican voters need a victory on the Save America Act, it’s also Trump, who has shown a rare amount of patience with Thune’s incompetence and callousness. At least until now.
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Even Cornyn, if only in view of his own potential political downfall, wrote a column in the New York Post calling for the filibuster to be dropped and the bill passed.
But Thune, with his long, sad face and low, mournful voice, like Eeyore the donkey, keeps saying, “We don’t have the votes to break the filibuster.”
Okay, John, how about this: Any Republican senator who refuses to vote to break the filibuster will lose his committee assignments, receive no money from the party, and be promised a primary.
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The most dangerous thing I’ve heard from Republican voters in Texas, and I’ve heard it from many, is that they’re starting to think that their vote just doesn’t matter, that nothing can change anyway. And who would argue with them now?
I don’t know who Thune is surrounding himself with who has told him that the anger I see everywhere among Republican voters is just a paid influencer campaign, but I would urge him to start talking to real voters instead of his K Street minions.
Senator John Cornyn addresses the media on primary night, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (Jack Myer/AP Photo)
It was an ominous sign that more Democrats than Republicans voted in last week’s deep-red primary in Texas, but not a surprise because the demoralized are not enthusiastic voters. And if the Save America Act dies, even fewer people will feel compelled to cast a vote.
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In the final moments of “Waiting for Godot,” Vladimir says, “Well? Shall we go?’ To which Estragon replies, “Yes, let’s go.” And then the famous direction, (They don’t move.).
There is no direct evidence to show that Samuel Beckett was inspired by the Republican leadership of the Senate when he wrote this, but he could have been, because it’s the same old scene over and over again.
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If nothing else, Thune needs to look Republican voters in the eye and say directly, “We hear you. We know you’re angry. We see it in the primary results and we will listen to what you want and try to do better.”
Right now, Thune and Senate Republicans are like the unwary spouse who doesn’t know the divorce papers have already been filed. It may not be too late to reach an agreement with the voters, but it is close.
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