As we approach the year 2026 and Democrats try to figure out how to regain power, your New Year's resolution should be simple: Manage egos better.
In recent years, they seem to have forgotten the time-tested need to appease the people. In other words, doing the same basic heavy lifting that the rest of us depend on to get through this chaotic world.
This effort cannot simply be directed at voters, important as they are. It should also include elite stakeholders, some of whom might (justifiably) be considered cranks, oddballs, and high-maintenance eccentrics.
Lest you think Democrats should just ignore these people and say “goodbye,” consider this: Both of Trump's terms could have been avoided if Democrats had been more willing to nurture the crazies in years past.
Let's start with his treatment of America's greatest eccentric: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
As journalist Michael Scherer, who profiled RFK Jr. for The Atlantic, said: he told alex wagner from “Pod Save America”: Once Kennedy’s own 2024 presidential campaign began to falter, he and his campaign manager began “making some sort of outreach to the Democrats… to see if they could start a conversation with Biden to negotiate something.”
Unfortunately, “the Democratic response [was] silence.” They wouldn't meet him, they wouldn't talk to him.
Later, as Scherer relates: “A friend of [Kennedy’s] connects him to Tucker Carlson, who connects him to Donald Trump. And that night, just a few hours later, they are talking, and at that moment Trump wants to make a deal.”
The rest is history.
Now I know what you're thinking. “But Kennedy is crazy! Why should the Democrats have humored him?”
How about this? Because Trump narrowly won the presidency in 2024 by form a disparate coalition held together by duct tape, resentment, and (possibly) a cursed amulet.
This motley crew included more prominent Democrats besides RFK Jr. Remember when Biden basically wooed Elon Musk into that big 2021 White House? electric vehicle summit? Even Kamala Harris, who happily agreed with Biden on almost everything except her own polling numbers, called that a big mistake.
Elsewhere, Harris committed her own costly snub when she decided not to participate in Joe Rogan's podcast.
For an entire decade, Democrats have systematically alienated their allies, with devastating results. I'm talking about the snubs that could have prevented Trump's first presidential bid altogether.
Not just Trump's famous humiliation in the 2011 election White House Correspondents' Dinner. Here's the most tragic prequel: The former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd told Bulwark's Tim Miller that before Trump went crazy, he called the Obama White House to offer “ideas on how to improve the state dinner.”
That's how it is. Donald J. Trump, future leader of the free world, only wanted to talk about better games. Shrimp trays. Tablecloths. Maybe a chocolate fountain.
Just as the world would have been better if Washington senators had signed Fidel Castro to a huge baseball contract before he became too interested in politics, America might have been better if Obama had made Trump the White House state dinner czar.
But as Todd said, “The last thing the Obama White House was going to do was placate a guy like Donald Trump.”
Understandable, until you consider that the alternative to humoring him was, you know… President Trump. Twice.
Look, I totally understand why a president of the United States might think he shouldn't stoop to kissing some nutcase's ring or placating some fake, gilded billionaire. But let's be honest: it's part of the job.
Instead of engaging in this kind of ego cultivation, Democrats – whether out of snobbery, elite control, geriatric distancing, or a disciplined disdain for “time thieves” – have repeatedly alienated potential allies (or at least neutral parties). Then they are shocked when these same people arrive in the MAGA solar system as space debris.
If Trump really is an existential threat (and Democrats say so about 87 times a week), then maybe, just maybe, they should come back. A. Telephone. Call.
Otherwise, Donald Trump will do it. Probably at 3 in the morning, while eating a Big Mac.
So humble yourself if you have to. False interest. Smile like you're not dying inside. Do the basic humiliations the rest of us do every day to get hired, promoted, or get a date.
It's the least you can do. So make it your New Year's resolution and stick to it.
But if you think you're too good at performing the basic pandering and ego-stroking gestures for even the craziest of eccentrics, bad things will happen.
Believe me, I've seen this movie. And we are barely a year into his second term.
Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy rich politicians” and “Too dumb to fail.”
