Someone Remind John Cornyn That He's Actually a Powerful Senator

Could someone please PLEASE remind Texas Sen. John Cornyn that there’s a reason I’m required to put an honorific before his name?! Someone please inform this man that he’s a goddamn U.S. Senator.

On Sunday, Cornyn posted this note from Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. It’s a kind note from a man who been there. “I know we often do battle on the policy, but we are also the only D and R who know how to work together on this stuff. So if you see an avenue for cooperation let me know,” Murphy wrote to Cornyn.

Despite the kindness Murphy extended to Texans, this just pissed me off.

Cornyn — and Republican lawmakers — act as if they have absolutely no power or say in the matter of preventing gun violence, particularly mass shooting. You want to know how you could collaborate with Murphy? You could demand Mitch McConnell call the Senate back from their ridiculous summer recess and hear gun control bills passed by the House.

Tweets about how the problem of gun violence is too complex to do anything about are not enough.

I realize this is a lot to ask when at least two members of Congress have been shot in the last 10 years and nothing really changed. But Cornyn’s aw-shucksness is just too much.

It is incredibly disrespectful to Cornyn’s constituents (of which I am one) for him to pretend as if the only power bestowed upon him with his $174,000 salary is to visit a memorial in El Paso. At least 29 people died this weekend in El Paso. For the love of the la Virgen, senator, use your power to do something. Or quit.