And then there’s the SAVE America Act — the proof-of-citizenship, photo-ID voting requirement that the overwhelming majority of Americans support and that Democrats have fought tooth and nail to prevent because they know exactly what honest elections do to their coalition. Trump wants it attached to reconciliation. Senate Parliamentarian rules make that complicated. Trump’s answer to that complication has been equally clear: fire the parliamentarian and get it done.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) isn’t going to fire the parliamentarian. Everyone knows this. So Republicans are floating an alternative — a $4 billion grant program to incentivize states to implement voter ID and citizenship verification voluntarily. It is, to put it charitably, not the same thing as a federal mandate. It is the kind of half-measure that lets Republicans tell their voters they did something while ensuring that California, New York, and Illinois do absolutely nothing.