Why does it seem that so often when it comes to political battles in Washington, Republicans find themselves on the losing end? The answer often lies in the fact that Republican lawmakers by and large have a much harder time uniting, even on core policy issues, than do the goose-stepping Democrats.

Republicans’ seemingly inherent disjointedness has resulted in yet another loss for a core policy issue that the party claims to uphold as a primary concern. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville stood his ground for months, holding up the promotion of hundreds of U.S. military officers over Joe Biden’s decision to use taxpayer dollars to provide abortion access for military members, a breaking of the Hyde Amendment that the “good Catholic” Biden long supported. But Tuberville finally ended his crusade this week.

“I’m not going to hold the promotions of these people any longer,” Tuberville stated. "We fought hard. We did the right thing for the unborn and for our military, fighting back against executive overreach and an abortion policy.“

The Democrat-controlled Senate still had the power to individually vote on promotions, though Democrats and the administration wanted the optics rather than an honest debate. The party of death, the party of unlimited and subsidized abortions, wanted the issue front and center following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year.

So, Tuberville stood as the lone Republican senator for months, a man willing to take the smears and jeers of Democrats, their Leftmedia cohorts, and even his own side. Even our Mark Alexander has from the beginning viewed Tuberville’s promotion blockade as absolutely correct on principle but badly flawed in strategy and tactics. He argues Republicans are losing the abortion issue by being viewed as extremists and, in this case, are seen as hurting military readiness.

Respectfully, the rest of the editorial team here disagrees. Tuberville’s stand was not merely a principled but foolhardy effort; it was an effort to preserve Rule of Law, and if we don’t send our elected representatives to Washington to do that, what are we doing? To borrow a phrase from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

What the old football coach did was take a shot. He took the initiative. He took a stand against the egregious and blatantly unconstitutional action of the Biden administration. His only failure was that his own side abandoned him.

Near the end, several GOP senators including Joni Ernst (IA), Lindsey Graham (SC), Todd Young (IN), and Mitt Romney (UT) turned on Tuberville and adopted the dubious Democrat claim that Tuberville was endangering military readiness.

The question is: Why, after all these months, has Tuberville only now conceded his fight? “Senator Chuck Schumer changed the rules on us,” he argued. “And when you change the rules, it’s hard to beat somebody.” The rule change hadn’t happened quite yet, but the Democrats led by Schumer pushed a resolution that if approved by 60 senators would allow them to circumvent Tuberville. Thanks to the aforementioned Republicans, Schumer was likely to get his rule change approved.

As a Hill staffer said of Tuberville’s shift, “This is on everyone who sold him out.”