The only way Democrats can easily win in 2028

As I write this, I am in London. For centuries, London and the greater United Kingdom have been the land of fantastical myths, fables and legends.

Speaking to various people affiliated with politics and media in the city, I was reminded of a new myth deliberately invented to advance a partisan narrative: That in 2024, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party swept into power via a massive victory. The truth is quite the opposite.

Elon Musk’s ongoing blood feud with him aside, there are many on both sides of the pond — President Trump included — who believe Starmer to be a “good person.” But being “good” or not had little or nothing to do with his victory.

Labour’s vote totals in 2024 were virtually the same from the previous election. What changed? The number of those who voted for the Conservative Party, which rightfully plummeted off a cliff, becauase the more “traditional,” commonsense and pragmatic voters, desperate to have the rule of law and sanity, felt both betrayed and, worse, played by the Conservative Party. The Conservatives had become exceptional at giving lip service to their constituents’ pain while being pathetic at keeping their word to those under their care. As such, those constituents chose to stay home.

Fool me once, okay. Fool me twice, I’ve got no place else to turn. Fool me three times and it was, “Thanks, guv, but I’m done with you and your disrespect of me and my family.”

Could this same scenario play out for the Republican Party and America’s conservatives in 2028? In a New York minute.

While blocking my ears to the screams of disbelief and hate from the left, I honestly do believe President Trump to be a once-in-a-century leader. That said, the predominant argument for me as to why so many on the left, in the media and in academia hate him is because they absolutely believe that he is a once-in-a-century mind who is fully capable of unwinding and trashing all of their “progressive” and “woke” policies, laws and corporate dictates affecting everything from the federal government to the education of tens of millions of children. They were petrified that he would succeed in 2016, and convinced he will in 2025, unless stopped.

For tens of millions of voters in 2016, New York City businessman Trump’s presidential campaign was a prayer answered. Millions of Republicans, Democrats, independents and various disenfranchised communities had come to believe that the entrenched elites controlling both parties had abandoned them and were using them — and their futures — as disposable pawns.

Like the commonsense, rule-of-law voters in the U.K., they were prepared to sit out the election. But when Trump rode down that golden escalator in June 2015, everything changed and political history was about to be made.

In November 2016, Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and shook the political world to its very core. But, as Trump was about to find out, the “uni-party” does not like to have its decades-long grip on power, graft, connections, special interests and featherbedding threatened.

Consequently, the establishment fought back with a vengeance. Without repeating all the details, Trump was suddenly being sabotaged in the White House; within Congress; within the federal government; within the courts; and within most of the mainstream media, with many “journalists” proclaiming themselves to be part of the “resistance.”

In the iconic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” we see the powerful, corrupt and evil “Taylor Machine” — which has multiple senators and House members in its back pocket — vow to “crush” the upstart Smith, who is trying to expose the largest graft operation in the U.S. Its leader, James Taylor, looks at his criminal crew and declares, “This is the works! Either we’re out of business or bigger than ever before.”

Our version of the “Taylor Machine” has been going after Trump since 2015. A decade later, it realizes everything is at stake. Hence, the relentless attacks on Trump from every part of the machine.

As that is happening, tens of millions of American voters are starting to wonder: Who has Trump’s back? So many abandoned or turned on him after 2016. Will the same thing now happen in a more subtle way in certain quarters?

For these Americans, it is all quite simple. If you joined the Trump administration in 2025, it is your duty to back the president and his powerful vision across the board. If not, what are you doing there?

You can’t get complacent. You can’t make mistakes. You can’t sabotage. You can’t push your ego. These tens of millions of Americans poured all of their hope, trust and faith into Trump. For them, he is also a once-in-a-century leader.

If they feel he has been slighted, underserved, challenged in public, leaked about, let down or betrayed, countless of these tens of millions of American voters will stay home in 2028. Enough to make a difference.

For them, this is not just all or nothing for the corrupt “Taylor Machine,” but their last chance to have Trump save the nation they love.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.