In a not-so different time and age, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) would still be considered one of the good guys: As a pro-life conservative who voted with President Donald Trump 99.2% of the time, just a generation earlier, he would’ve been lauded as one of our most staunchly conservative, reliably Republican senators.
And not just reliably Republican: He’s reliably a winner, too. Sen. Cornyn hadn’t lost an election in 42 years.
Yet last night, this four-term senator with a 42-year winning streak was smooshed like a bug, winning just 36% of the vote in his Republican primary runoff. Nearly two-thirds of his constituents rejected him!
Just like that, his political career is over. No second acts, no chance for redemption.
GOP politicians beware: The rules for Republican Party membership ain’t what they once were. Violate the new rules at your own peril.
But don’t look to the mainstream media to explain the new rules. Reductive, knee-jerk journalists can’t see beyond the Great Orange Monster, interpreting Cornyn’s fate — as well as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and a slew of Indiana state senators — as the umpteenth sign that Trump is a dictator/fascist/authoritarian.
Today’s USA Today op-ed, “Trump’s Tightening Grip on Republicans Is Hurting All of Us,” highlighted their bias:
What President Donald Trump says goes in the Republican Party, no matter what polling says about his popularity.
It’s a troubling reality we face as he continues to squash dissent among members of his own party, and by extension, muting political discourse.
[…]
Democrats should be worried about the effect this is having on the other leading political party. Without a strong Republican Party full of a variety of opinions, bipartisanship will be a thing of the past, and our country will look more like an authoritarian regime with each passing day.
And what kind of “bipartisanship” does USA Today pine for? Why, it’s Republicans crossing the aisle to support the Democrats:
Our nation is at its best when its leaders govern through bipartisan agreement. It’s how several pieces of key legislation were passed under former President Joe Biden, like the Respect for Marriage Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Even though neither of these laws went as far as progressives would have liked, it feels like a miracle they got passed at all.
If the United States doesn’t have two political parties with a diverse range of beliefs, we risk losing out on any work across the aisle.
The mainstream media defines “bipartisanship” as Republicans crossing the aisle to help Democrats. But when Democrats cross the aisle to help Republicans, they’re sellouts and traitors.
Case in point: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.). Because he’ll occasionally side with Republicans, he’s a Judas to the Donkeys:
The New Republic: John Fetterman Is Historically Unpopular, Brutal Polls Show
Axios: Dems Plot Fetterman Ouster
Salon: John Fetterman’s Shameful Betrayal of the Left
Newsweek: John Fetterman Under Fire as Critics Accuse Him of Sucking Up to MAGA
The Daily Beast: John Fetterman Is Fueling Dem Fury With ‘Embarrassing’ Attacks on His Own Party
American Prospect: Will John Fetterman Go Full Benedict Arnold?
USA Today: Chief of Staff Quits After Fetterman Votes Against Ending Trump War Powers
Wall Street Journal: The Gap Between John Fetterman and the Democrats Is Widening
Progressive.org: It’s Time to Replace John Fetterman
Axios: ‘He Needs to Go’: Fetterman’s Fellow Democrats Rage Over His Vote on Mullin for DHS
Fox News: DNC Vice Chair Attacks Democratic Sen. John Fetterman: ‘You’re a Mess’
Sen. Fetterman still votes with his own party 93% of the time — and contrary to The New Republic’s headline, he’s actually Pennsylvania’s most popular senator. Buoyed by bipartisan support, Fetterman has a 51% approval rating. (His fellow Pennsylvania senator, Republican David McCormick, has 45% approval.)
But Fetterman is persona non grata in the Democratic Party of 2026.
John Cornyn and John Fetterman: two men from a bygone era. Under the old rules, they could’ve served in the Senate for life; under the new rules, they’re political roadkill.
It’s a phenomenon we discussed last week:
Today, we expect a Republican district will send a loyal, dependable Republican representative to Washington. Helping our GOP “team” is considered part of the job. And given how narrow the margins are, we’re unwilling to sacrifice a roster spot for someone who refuses to play ball.
It’s a luxury we can no longer afford.
Congressmen and senators aren’t simply judged by how much pork they can peddle. Not anymore — that’s as out-of-fashion as parachute pants, Wham! records, and the mullet. Instead, they’re judged by how effectively they help their “team” advance the national football.
That’s because the Democratic Party has changed. Until the Obama years, it was a coalition party: liberals, unions, Catholics, environmentalists, blue-collar workers, minorities, and women. Post-Obama, it became a vehicle for left-wing radicalism — and this alone became its North Star.
Not compromise. Not meeting in the middle. Its stated goal was “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Which made conservative compromise an impossibility.
The Republican Party and the Democratic Party have evolved to address each other’s deficiencies. It was probably inevitable: The political marketplace demanded it, because they’re competing products.
So, when one party changes, so must the other:
As the Democrats have embraced socialism, Wokeism, and trans/LGBTQ policies, Republican voters have recoiled in horror. We want our party to protect us from their madness.
And that’s an all-hands-on-deck challenge.
The Democratic Party nationalized state elections in 2008 with Barack Obama. It ceased to consist of free-wheeling, locally attuned legislators who represented different segments of the Democratic coalition and became a unified, unapologetic, left-wing movement that placed ideology first.
The Democrats’ goal wasn’t compromise. It was victory.
And during the Obama years, the Democrats won a lot.
The MAGA movement responded by nationalizing elections on the Republican side, too. It’s one of Donald Trump’s most significant legacies, because pre-Trump, we were a party of John Fettermans — always ready to swing a deal and compromise — and the best we could hope for was electing the occasional John Cornyn, who’d sway his GOP colleagues a little to the right.
It was an age when the Republican Party AND the Democratic Party were moving to the left. The only difference was, the Republicans moved slightly slower than the Democrats.
The Trump revolution wasn’t just a response to Democratic Party excesses. It was also a stinging rebuke to the GOP establishment — and to Republican politicians who’d cosplay as senior statesmen, earning mainstream media “kudos” for (repeatedly) bending their knee before their Democratic masters.
These one-sided capitulations led to a tilted playing field. Since 1991, just one Democratic-nominated Supreme Court justice failed to get over 60 votes in the Senate (Kentanji Brown Jackson). Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan were all confirmed by an average of 78.5 votes.
And over the same exact time, of the six GOP Supreme Court nominees, only John Roberts received 60+ votes. The other five were confirmed by an average of 53.2 votes.
The MAGA movement’s North Star is winning. That’s now the dominant belief in today’s Republican Party: Conservatism is secondary — because keeping the Democrats out of power is victory enough.
To quote Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”
The new rule for the Republican Party is simple: Use your resources to help the party win.
This means, if you hail from an ultra-conservative district, then vote like it — or we’ll find someone else who will.
Under the old rules, “conservative” senators like John Cornyn were incentivized to move to the middle, because their Republican seats were safe. Nobody dared primary a sitting GOP senator; therefore, his only real threat was being too “extreme” and angering the left.
As such, many conservative states and conservative districts had wishy-washy RINOs representing them in Congress. (Many were there for decades at a time.)
It was inefficient. We were squandering precious resources.
Not anymore. Now, on a national level, we expect more from conservative states and conservative districts — not less — and we’ll vote you out of office if you don’t deliver.
Like it or not, there are no local federal elections anymore. Everything is national. For better or worse, politics has become the ultimate team sport.
And the team that maximizes its resources is the one that will win.
If you want a bright future in today’s Republican Party, the path is clear: Be an asset to your team. Become indispensable. Listen to your coach, know your role, and do it well.
And let’s score some frickin’ points!
That’s how you become the next Donald Trump — instead of the next John Cornyn.
Recommended: It’s a Time for Choosing II: Do You Trust Trump With Iran — or Not?
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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