Do you think the House Democrats are happy with how the recent speaker of the House voting worked out?  You may think they were merely "along for the ride," eating popcorn and "enjoying the show."

However, perhaps they did not realize that they could have blocked the Freedom Caucus from having the time to twist Kevin McCarthy's arm tighter and tighter as the rounds of voting went on and on.

First, let's look at the voting rules.  As many of us learned, the winner is the one who receives over 50 percent of the total votes for named candidates.

See below for the initial vote, versus an alternate scenario where several Democrats vote "present."

Summarizing the above, if 32 Democrats had voted "present" in one of the early rounds, it could have resulted in McCarthy winning...with a lot less Freedom Caucus influence!

Did they think it through?

Maybe they were OK with all of the eventual concessions that McCarthy apparently had to give to convince enough of the holdouts to finally vote for him, or just vote present.

But I doubt it.

I believe they were proud to have all their votes go for their new chosen one.  It's likely that they let their pride get in the way.

Image via Max Pixel.