Soon, the Chicago Bears will make a choice: keep Justin Fields, or get rid of him and select a rookie quarterback.

The Bearxit decision has experts and laymen split. In a late-December poll, 70 percent of Chicagoans said they wanted Fields back in 2024. Another survey found 75 percent of Illinois football fans prefers Fields stays. The populace seems to have a decision: Remain.

But experts are leaning Leave. A Yahoo Sports poll showed that seven anonymous NFL GMs thought the Bears should trade Fields. ESPN surveyed 22 NFL team representatives: 18 voted Leave.

The experts appear to be diverging with a silent majority, reminiscent of 2016. That year, a tidal wave of populist fervor swept the United Kingdom, which voted to leave the EU in June, and the United States, which elected Donald Trump in November.

These were probably bad decisions for the long-term health of each country. Brexit raised costs on UK businesses, weighing down investment, trade, and economic growth. One study found that it’s been responsible for a third of UK food price inflation since 2019.

Trump’s election is perhaps a harder judgment, because there are successes to point to between January 20, 2017 and January 5, 2021. He oversaw widespread economic growth behind tax cuts and deregulation; appointed three Supreme Court justices; and helped America become a net energy exporter. Many would bristle at these “accomplishments” — if you aren’t a conservative pining for faster growth and more drilling, you might not be so excited about the Trump Administration’s resume.

But those are policy disagreements. In my view, Trump’s election was bad for the country’s long-term health because of January 6, when Trump’s term effectively ended and many of his accomplishments were instantly overshadowed. Yes, Trump could’ve handled Covid better; yes, he always could’ve been more presidential, higher-character — but January 6 was the moment he put himself over democracy. In the months and years since, it’s become apparent that a swath of American voters would do the same, illuminating why 2016 was a short-term response to populist anger that ultimately wounded the U.S. long-term.

So, Trump’s election was democratically bad and Brexit was economically bad. But we don’t have to worry about such an outcome with the Chicago Bears and Justin Fields. That’s because some things are too important for democracy, and picking your team’s QB is one of them.

Here in America — and in many other developed countries — we pine for democracy. Sure, we’re in what seems like a particularly anti-democratic moment, but the broader sweep of American history is democracy first, democracy always. It’s in our national DNA: we want more choice among candidates and ideas.

Our rules and customs back this up. Every four years, we hold wide-open state primaries to choose our national candidates, then vote in November for our favorite option in the general election. State and local races make participation even easier: a prospective candidate might only need to pay a $35 filing fee to get on the ballot to run for a seat in the House of Representatives; someone who wants to serve on City Council likely needs just a few hundred signatures to be eligible. We have low barriers to entry for candidates, followed by lots of voting and democracy.

But democracy isn’t always good, right? Sometimes I’d prefer decisions be left to experts. I don’t choose my plumber with a district-wide vote; I don’t even pick my pediatrician by polling my family. For these roles, I want an expert, and I don’t want to leave it up to democracy.

Same for NFL teams and their quarterbacks. Chicago Bears brass will not hold a city-wide vote on Justin Fields’ fate. They — expert pro football executives — will make the call. They will choose Remain or Leave, and that will be all that matters.

That’s a good thing, I think. My personal belief is that Fields’ time in Chicago needs to end, because his slight improvement over three years isn’t enough to overcome the benefits of drafting Caleb Williams, who looks like a generational prospect and would come with a lower salary hit and more years of team control. In other words, I think the experts — those executives from the Yahoo and ESPN polls — are right, and it’s not particularly close.

This is not to say that Brexit and the 2016 election were decisions better left to a smoke-filled room of experts. Voting is important; participation should be a cornerstone of any healthy republic. But every bad idea is a good idea taken too far, so we might consider a little less democracy at times. Maybe American primaries shouldn’t be so open; the parties should be more careful deciding who represents them every fourth November, perhaps sometimes even bucking voters, who are more likely to be overtaken by short-termism. Likewise, the UK’s inclusion in the EU might not be a question best left to 46,000 angry-in-the-moment voters. It might have been better for experts to have more influence.

I think the Bears will choose Leave, and Caleb Williams will become the face of the organization. I’m fairly sure of that, but one thing I’m absolutely certain of: this franchise-altering decision won’t be left up to Chicago fans. It will instead be made by NFL executives who know more about football than we do. That’s a good thing.