(CNN) There was a clear message from Senate Republicans to President Donald Trump in the two failed votes Thursday aimed at ending the 34-day-and-counting government shutdown: We need to re-open the government. Like, now.

Yes, both votes -- one on Trump's proposal to temporarily extend DACA provisions in exchange for $5.7 billion for building the border wall, the other a Democratic proposal to simply re-open the government for a brief period to negotiate on border funding -- failed to get the 60 votes they needed to advance to a final vote.

Which is the key point. Only one Democrat -- West Virginia's Joe Manchin -- voted for the GOP proposal. Six Republicans crossed party lines to support the Democratic plan: Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Johnny Isakson (Georgia), Cory Gardner (Colorado) and Mitt Romney (Utah).

Those six senators openly defied the Republican President of the United States despite the fact -- and this is important -- they knew that the Democratic bill wasn't going to get 60 votes. (There was never any illusion on Capitol Hill that either of these bills would pass.) These votes are rightly understood as message-sending by this bloc of a half dozen Republicans. They wanted to make clear to Trump, and to a lesser extent, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, that the time to end the shutdown is here.

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