Republicans keep losing because they won’t take hostages

The useful part

By now, most Americans have figured out that the push for the SAVE America Act is performative — perhaps even more than the usual Washington standards. Republicans have a closing window of unified control of the House, Senate, and White House. Yet the structural advantages Democrats spent decades building remain largely untouched outside temporary executive action.

How it works

• Act is one way to answer that problem with basic election rules such as voter ID and limits on mail-in voting.
• It is time for Republicans who say they want this bill to pass to prove they do, too.
• If Republicans lose unified control without locking in durable changes, a future Democrat administration can reverse much of what has been done by executive order.

What to take from it

John Thune understands leverage perfectly well.

Details worth keeping

Elections remain vulnerable to the same disputes over identification, mail voting, and administration that Republicans have spent years denouncing, while other institutional fights — immigration enforcement and reform of the FBI among them — remain unfinished. Without a positive agenda, the charge will stick.