A lot has been made here and elsewhere of the Republicans’ underperformance last week. In all the furor surrounding the results, Democrats have managed to dodge much scrutiny. Conservative columnist Yuval Levin is here to fix that.

Levin is, without exaggeration, one of the best political commentators working today. His ability to see past distractions to analyze the core of an issue is remarkable. And for him, Democrats are using Republicans’ soul-searching as cover to avoid their own spiritual accounting. As Levin notes, this was especially apparent during Biden’s post-election press conference. When asked what he would do differently with the incoming Congress, he responded, “Nothing, because [the voters] are just finding out what we’re doing. The more they know about what we’re doing, the more they support us.” There was a line in Democratic circles during the second Bush administration that said the president was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Democrats are behaving much the same way now. Trump walked them in three elections and they’re acting like they came up just shy of a grand slam. They really shouldn’t. There’s a difference between being the party of last resort and the party of preference.

Levin sees the need for soul-searching on both sides as an opportunity for the future. If each side learns from its mistakes, they could put forward strong, even inspiring, nominees for 2024. People the electorate actually wants to vote for. Imagine that. But if Democrats keep whistling past the graveyard, they’ll miss their chance and Republicans will become the party of last resort. Maybe even the party of preference.