Tucker Scott ’26
Opinions Editor
Republicans have apparently decided to once again give up a winnable Senate seat because people care more about token acts of resistance than actually winning, or policy effectiveness, or anything really. I bring this up in the context of the Texas Senate race for 2026. Attorney General Ken Paxton has decided he wants to run against Senator John Cornyn and has received an outside share of media and political support because he is far more vocal and performative about his resistance to Democrats. This despite the fact that Paxton was impeached in the Texas House of Representatives over allegations of corruption that he was funneling money to people who hired his mistress. Which, to be honest, is not a good look. Texas is about as red of a state as you can get and yet Republicans, because they are apparently morons, are about to blow the easiest campaign of all time because they would rather elect Paxton, who is more vocal in his “resistance” then keep Cornyn who has the exact same policies as Paxton and is far more likely to win given the fact that again he wasn’t funneling money to businesses who were paying his mistress.
Now on the flip side Democrats are about to make the same mistake as well by wanting to run Representative Jasmine Crocket. If you think Crocket, a far left, radical, socialist who says insane and/or inflammatory things every 0.5 seconds will win then you are similarly dead wrong. Can anyone name a thing that Representative Crocket has actually done or gotten accomplished in her time in office? I can’t. But what I can list is all the performative acts of resistance she has engaged in against Trump and Republicans more broadly.
For proof of this let me remind you of the fate of Wendy Davis. In 2014 she received outsized media attention for her performative acts of resistance. Most especially for her 13 hour filibuster on a pro life law while wearing pink sneakers. Then the election came around and Greg Abbot skunked her, winning by 21 points with 59% of the vote, a sheer majority, compared to Wendy Davis who finished with 36%.
But it isn’t just in minor House races this phenomenon is occurring; it’s happening all over the country. Take for example Cory Booker, the Senator from my home state of New Jersey. He, and other Democrats like him, have been doing these super long filibusters because… no one knows. Nothing has been accomplished thanks to these filibusters, and in fact all he is doing is pissing off other Democrats. But the media are busy singing his praises because after all he resisted. Sure his resistance amounted to absolutely nothing but he shook his fist at the Trump administration… while also doing nothing to stop them.
Now I’m not naive enough to say that there should never be performative resistance or even that some performance is necessary. After all, politics is a show game. But it’s not all there is. If the performance is just for performance sake, if there is no reason or greater goal behind it then the whole thing becomes meaningless, ridiculous, and stupid. It’s why we elected a reality tv star as our president twice. It’s why populist politicians like AOC and MTG are having their days. It’s why younger populist fighters like Zoran Mamdani and Vice President JD Vance have such an enormous, energetic, enthusiastic, and loyal base. I would be shocked if the 2028 election weren’t between AOC and JD Vance.
Fighting is important, yes, it is important to stand up for what you believe in. But it’s not the only thing that matters. And the American people seem to have forgotten that. That fighting and performance is merely a tool to get a policy change. Because if all that matters is that a politician can signal their resistance to the other party then you might as well just declare the President, of whichever party, a dictator and be done with it. But that is not what America is, and not what America should be. We as the American people need to demand real action and real change from our politicians, on both the left and right. Because if we don’t then there might not be a country left to save.
Featured image courtesy of Google Images
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