Picking columns for this site, it’s occasionally a difficult decision choosing between a piece I disagree with and one I don’t. Given yesterday’s events, I was determined to pick a piece I disagreed with today. Then I came across Matt Lewis’s piece in The Daily Beast and all bets were off.

I don’t normally like to tip my hand as far as where I stand on issues — hopefully the most you can tell is I favor thoughtful commentary from both sides — but as far as Speaker McCarthy’s ousting goes, Lewis has taken the words out of my mouth. For example, when he writes, “I understand why Democrats don’t like McCarthy. I really do,” I said that aloud yesterday. I even underlined the last part.

But yesterday was a massive unforced error for House Democrats. As Lewis writes, Americans are looking for an adult in the Congressional playroom, and there’s no reason to believe they wouldn’t reward that adult in the next election. House Democrats just rejected the mantle, and at a time they can ill-afford to do so, too. Americans favor Republicans by 14 points on the economy and President Biden’s approval, though on the upswing in some polls, is still weak. Saving McCarthy wouldn’t have erased these deficits, but it likely would have helped. When the next election yet again surprises the party for being brutally close, they’d do well to remember yesterday in the post-mortem.