Does the emerging Senate "YOLO caucus" now have a new member? For those of you too out-of-touch to know, "YOLO" stands for "You Only Live Once." It is a slogan designed to urge people to do things they maybe normally wouldn't (for whatever reason). But now the term has been applied to a certain group of senators, and that group just might have picked up a new member.

The YOLO caucus isn't a real thing, so it's kind of silly to talk about its membership, since officially it doesn't have one (because officially, it doesn't exist). Unofficially, it stands for those Republican senators who now don't have anything to lose by opposing Donald Trump (on anything, really). They are senators who are now at the end of their political careers (or, at least, the "being a senator" phase of it, for now). They don't have to worry about being re-elected, because they are not going to be re-elected.

North Carolina's Thom Tillis is a prime example. Rather than facing Trump's wrath in a Republican primary, last year he announced he would not be seeking re-election. Trump got his revenge on Tillis, but now the seat is probably the most likely in the entire country to flip to a Democrat this November. Trump doesn't care -- he puts his own petulance far above any party loyalty.

Mitch McConnell could even be included in the YOLO caucus, since (due to his advanced age) he is also not running for re-election. McConnell has shown that he has been willing to stand up to Trump on occasion, which used to be a bigger deal (when he was the Republican leader of the Senate), but does still happen on certain issues.

The YOLO caucus is growing now because we are in the thick of primary season, and Trump is busy nailing further "RINO" scalps to his gold-plated walls. Bill Cassidy didn't even make it to the runoff election in Louisiana, and ever since has been on somewhat of a Trump-defying binge:

[Bill] Cassidy seemed to uncork something right after losing his Saturday primary. Less than a week has passed, and he has already spoken dismissively about [Donald] Trump's claims about the 2020 election, defended his vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial after January 6, come out against funding to secure the White House ballroom, criticized Trump's endorsement of [Ken] Paxton, bashed the anti-weaponization fund, and voted in favor of a resolution to stop the war in Iran. That’s an exponential increase in Cassidy's public disagreements with Trump.

Ken Paxton is the guy who just beat Senator John Cornyn in the Texas Republican primary. This has now made Cornyn almost a de facto automatic member of the YOLO caucus. How much he leans in to defying Trump is yet to be seen, but he certainly doesn't have anything left to lose if he does so, at this point.

There are two other GOP senators who also might be considered part of the YOLO caucus as well, even though they're not slated to leave the Senate at the end of the calendar year. Both of these come from northern states with a proud history of political independence, and both have indeed bucked Trump on certain issues in the past. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska won't be up for re-election until 2028, so she doesn't even have to worry about this year's midterms. Susan Collins of Maine does, and she's facing a formidable Democratic opponent. Collins is not that popular with Maine voters these days, and she knows full well that every time she defies Trump and votes against him it is probably going to help her on the campaign trail, not hurt her (Maine is still a purplish state, but it leans blue).

This all adds up to six GOP senators who either have already shown some independence from Trump or are now at least free to do so. If four of them decide to vote against Trump, that's enough to kill any of his legislative agenda in the chamber. If five of them decide to do so, that's enough to kill any Trump initiative even if John Fetterman votes with the Republicans (an important caveat, since he now often does so). It wouldn't even take all six of them to rein Trump in -- four or five would be enough to do it.

The YOLO caucus is only going to be around for another seven months. Four of them will then leave the Senate (five, if Collins is defeated). But that's seven long months where Trump could indeed be reined in, at least to some degree or another. And that might be important. Already there are indications that three of Trump's big pet projects might be halted by these breakaway Republicans: his ballroom, his $1.776 billion slush fund to pay off his cop-beating buddies, and his war with Iran. This is, obviously, a mix in terms of relative importance, but it shows that when Trump truly is about to go too far his own party might still be able to stop his worst impulses.

We'll see. The members of the YOLO caucus all have very different political priorities and might not act together as a group very often. But the important thing is that they are all free to do so whenever they choose. All they have left to worry about is their political legacy, and defying Trump might not wind up being such a bad thing for that legacy in the end (even for a Republican).

These Republicans should be encouraged to go their own way as often as their conscience directs them to. They've got nothing left to lose. And hey, you only live once, right?

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant