Of all the issues that dot and roil our political landscape, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that enjoys more lopsided support than voter ID. (No, BOGO happy-hour appetizers are not a political issue.)

According to Gallup, a requirement to present photo ID before voting is favored by 84% of Americans. Talk about a slam-dunk issue. As for the party breakdown, it’s favored by 98% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats. And yet the Democrat Party is four-square against it. Hmm, why might that be?

So at first glance, it might seem like a surprise — indeed, a disappointment — that Donald Trump told his congressional allies yesterday to drop their demand for a Senate vote on a recently proposed election-integrity bill as a means of ending the latest Democrat-led government shutdown.

After all, Republicans desperately want to reform our fraud-ridden election system, right? So why would Trump back off from an effort to move the election-reform football down the field a bit?

Simply put, because forcing such a vote would play directly into the Democrats’ hands. Why? Because the Democrats oppose election reform, and because they also favor a government shutdown.

And why, you ask, might the Democrats favor another infantile government shutdown? After all, aren’t they The Party of Government, and don’t shutdowns just make our federal government look incompetent?

Yes, and yes. The Democrats are fully vested in Big Government, but they’re also fully vested in retaking the House of Representatives this November and retaking the presidency in 2028. And if it really is the economy, stupid — and it most assuredly is — then what better way to sew economic uncertainty than by shutting down the government? That’s what last year’s Schumer Shutdown was all about.

As things stand, and if history is any indicator, the Republicans are in for an electoral shellacking come November. It’s almost always the case for the party in power to lose House seats during a midterm election. As I noted last month:

The only exceptions to this rule in the modern era are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. But FDR did so during the Great Depression, when the American people were soothed by his “fireside chats” and beguiled by his “New Deal” promise of free stuff. Slick Willie, of course, benefited from not only an unusually strong economy but from feminists and other reprobates who rewarded him for having made oral sex with interns great again. As for W, he was buoyed by an electorate that rightly saw the Republicans as the adults in the room in the aftermath of 9/11.

We saw the latest harbinger of this ill blue tide on Saturday in solidly red Texas, where a Democrat won a state senate seat in a district that Donald Trump had carried by a whopping 17 points in 2024.

The other reason why Republicans seemed to get slapped around in special elections that they ought to win is that once we elect our guy at the top of the ticket, we tend to think everything else will take care of itself. We tend to dial back from campaign mode until the next big election.

Democrats, though, are like rust. They never sleep. They never stop thinking about the next election, about returning to power.

So between now and Tuesday, November 3, we need to make sure that everyone we know who appreciates a good economy, low inflation, high affordability, cheaper gas, more take-home pay, closed borders, safer streets, and a strong America knows this one thing: Donald Trump is on the ballot this year. Because the final two years of his final administration are on the ballot.

If the Democrats gain control of the gavels, the purse, the legislative agenda, and the power to subpoena witnesses and hold impeachment hearings — just as they did during Trump’s first term — you can kiss the Trump agenda goodbye. For. Ever. Even if another impeachment seems unlikely, you can most assuredly say hello to two years of endless subpoenas and investigations and the hauling of Trump cabinet members before Democrat-controlled committees.

If the thought of Speaker Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t make you throw up just a little bit in your mouth, how about Maxine Waters berating Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a hearing of the Financial Services Committee, or purple-haired Rosa DeLauro haranguing OMB Director Russell Vought during an Appropriations hearing? Or worse, what if the Democrats decide to appease their hard-left base and infuse their committees with fresh leadership? What if AOC or Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib somehow get the gavels?

You get my point.

And if you’re thinking, Even if the GOP loses the House, Trump still has the veto pen, so he still has the ability to stop whatever awful legislation the Democrats try to pass, that’s true, but the Democrats will certainly scuttle any legislation that might help the economy or the American people during the final two years of Trump’s term, all the better to hurt the chances of a President Vance or President Rubio or President DeSantis.

After all, the Democrats are desperate to retake the White House in 2028, and their unstated goal between now and then is to sow as much chaos and inflict as much economic pain as possible upon the American people — and blame it on the Republicans. That’s what this nascent mini-shutdown is all about, and that’s what all these vile anti-ICE protests are all about.

No, Donald Trump’s proper name won’t be on the ballot this November 3, but his policies will all be on the ballot.

To be sure, part of getting out the vote is enticing folks to vote for your party, but an equally important part is to get them to vote against the other guy’s party. While it’s true that we elect a president every four years, we hold a nationwide referendum on his policies every two years, in the form of midterm elections.

So, yes, by all means, hold a midterm convention this summer and campaign tirelessly on the roaring economy and improved affordability and safer streets.

But the magic bullet isn’t a midterm convention. It’s to very publicly and painfully expose the Democrats as the pro-fraud party, the anti-voter-ID party, the party that’s against an issue that enjoys overwhelming support from the American people.

And how do we do that?

The Federalist’s Rachel Bovard has the answer. We force the Democrats to filibuster the SAVE Act, the voter ID act, and we force them to do it the old-fashioned way — by forcing a Democrat senator to give an endless speech against voter ID without leaving the floor, even to take a leak. No sitting, and no eating. Only talking. For hours on end. As Bovard writes:

Here’s how it would work. Leader Thune would call up the House-passed voter ID bill. At this point, the Senate would be “on” the SAVE Act. Senate rules would dictate that a vote on the bill — at a 51-vote simple majority threshold — must be the next thing the Senate does. The only way to delay that vote is for a senator to stand up and speak — indefinitely.

Incidentally, that same Gallup poll I mentioned above also reported that requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time is favored by 83% of Americans. And that fix is also part of the SAVE Act. So force the Democrats to denounce these wildly popular reforms, and force them to do it for hours on end. The campaign ad writes itself.

So that’s the foolproof plan for winning the midterms. Hopefully, someone on Capitol Hill reads The Patriot Post.