I begin today’s newsletter by reminding readers that Asian rhinoceroses live mainly in swamps. All rhinos need water and mud wallows for cooling, skin protection, and parasite control, so they often stay near rivers, lakes, or wet areas even in drier habitats. Asian species have adapted more to forested and wetland environments, while African ones lean toward open plains.
What does this have to do with politics? Oh nothing at all—not one darned thing. Just like Jim Comey’s seashells, right?
You cannot expect a creature who wallows in mud to suddenly leave the swamp, take a shower and join the tea party.
Following MAGA voters primarying Thomas Massie, Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn the usual voices were heard from the people who want to take the party back but not as many as before.
Ah the good old days when Republican stiffs gloated over Trump’s setbacks.
In February 2021, “Congressman Adam Kinzinger launched an effort to reclaim the Republican Party. He said, “If you believe that we should be putting the country and our platform before Donald Trump, this is the place for you and we’ll see how it evolves over time.”
Two years later, he joined CNN.
Also in 2021, Congresswoman Liz Cheney said, “I’m not going to cede our party and I’m not going to cede the republic to Donald Trump or those forces who have shown themselves unfit.”
The next year, MAGA voters primaried her.
And in 2024, Senator Mitt Romney told CNN, “Oh, MAGA is the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today. And will the party need to change? Look, the Republican Party has become the party of the working-class, middle-class voter. And so there’ll be some—you know, some reorientation that’s going to be necessary in my party.”
The next month, his term expired and Trump’s second presidency began.
He is their standard bearer. That makes him the head of the Republican Party. It’s his party and you can whine if you want to—we won’t.
MAGA voters have had it with the Republican Establishment going back to 2010 at the very least because that is when the Tea Party gifted them a net gain of 63 seats in the House—their biggest gain in 64 years and making John Boehner the Speaker of the House.
Did DC Republicans thank them? Of course not. Instead the establishment blamed the Tea Party for not regaining control of the Senate—something DC Republicans lost in 2006 and doubled the losses in 2008.
The Tea Party primaried three candidates the Republican Establishment backed in battles against Democrat incumbents. The party abandoned the Tea Party winners and the Democrats won re-election. But hey, it was all the fault of the Tea Party.
Even if Republicans had picked up all three states, they would have fallen short because they would have gained only 10 seats. They needed 11. That is how far the party had fallen under the stewardship of the people who nominated McCain and Romney for president.
In 2014, a majority in the House having done nothing for four years, the Tea Party primaried House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in favor of David Brat, a college professor in economics and ethics. He served two terms and left in favor of a professorship at Liberty University.
There is more to life than sitting in Congress.
If the Republican Establishment wants to take back the party, then it and its members must earn it because voters are telling the Cornyn crowd “you have failed me for the last time.”
Passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act—SAVE Act—is a must because without it, Democrats will win in 2028 and we will become a one-party country.
The SAVE Act will strengthen election integrity by requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, plus stricter photo ID rules for voting. Mail-in votes for federal office will be strictly reduced.
This is in reaction to Obama and the deep state stealing the 2020 election by stuffing the ballot box with illegal votes via the U.S. Mail.
I get that the Republican Establishment and Fox News were in on the deal but not reining in federal elections is suicidal.
This is an 80/20 issue that a Republican Senate refuses to support. Oh, they make it look like only a few senators oppose it but there are ways around it such as ending the filibuster. They are scapegoats, just like John McCain was on Obamacare. He takes the blame, which allows the rest of the Republican senators to claim, gee, we tried to repeal it but it failed.
Codifying the president’s executive orders are a must because this would stop a Democrat president from overturning the order. We still have 18 judicial nominees awaiting Senate confirmation.
Sadly, too many Republican senators have become Republicans In Name Only since moving to Washington.
The press shed crocodile tears for Cornyn with the New York Times reporting:
Senator John Cornyn’s resounding primary defeat in Texas on Tuesday has sharpened tensions between President Trump and Senate Republicans, and threatens to imperil the president’s agenda as allies who have stayed in lock step with him see his actions increasingly diverging from their interests.
Mr. Cornyn, who less than two years ago came within a handful of votes of becoming the Republican leader, was a popular and respected senator as well as a prolific fund-raiser, a dependable conservative vote and an able floor debater. His colleagues saw the president’s last-minute endorsement of his scandal-mired opponent as a move to punish a senator whom Mr. Trump deemed insufficiently loyal, an insult to the institution and a self-serving political mistake that put his party’s hold on the Senate at risk.
“It is very sad and unsettling, and not good for the Senate,” said Senator Susan Collins.
Thanks to the Democrat Party, she’s set to lose to a Nazi in November. And MAGA is worse?
In May, MAGA voters primaried 3 of them. That should send a message to the RINOs, but they appear to like living in the mud.
You can subscribe to Don’s Daily Substack Here.
This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
If you enjoyed this article, then please REPOST or SHARE with others; encourage them to follow AFNN. If you’d like to become a citizen contributor for AFNN, contact us at managingeditor@afnn.us Help keep us ad-free by donating here.
Substack: American Free News Network Substack
Truth Social: @AFNN_USA
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/afnnusa
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/2_-GAzcXmIRjODNh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AfnnUsa
GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/AFNN_USA
CloutHub: @AFNN_USA