What are the odds that 2026 will be the year everything finally begins returning to “normal”?

Sure, it doesn’t exactly feel like we’re about to witness the dawning of a future where the president’s unhinged late-night Truth Social posts are replaced by pragmatic and deliberate public policy agendas. Nor does it seem like our partisan divides are suddenly going to be relegated to irrelevant fodder in an otherwise unified and well-adjusted society governed by pragmatists. 

But, hey, anything could happen. Right? 

Of course, emerging from our current fever dream of political absurdity isn’t likely to happen overnight. And why should it? We haven’t lived in “normal times” for a while now — and neither party seems terribly interested in steering us away from the sort of chaos that has become commonplace. 

Indeed, it often feels as if we’re living in an alternative timeline — some bizarre future thrown askew by an errant time traveler stepping on a butterfly and inadvertently shifting our world into a Philip K. Dick reality. And considering the political outlook of 2026, it’s a reality we seem doomed to remain in for the foreseeable future. 

For starters, in the year ahead, President Donald Trump will continue to be Trump — a political force within the GOP that has resulted in huge swaths of the party abandoning the sort of free-market, constitutional government it once used to espouse. We’ll continue to witness a Republican Party that defends an endless barrage of presidential proclamations, gold-plated rebranding efforts and mathematically illiterate ramblings as leaders within the GOP replace their libertarian leanings with sycophantic loyalty to a reality television presidency. 

Democrats, for their part, won’t be much better. Rather than aggressively courting those voters who have become disenchanted with a malignant narcissist governing the nation by diktat, the Democratic Party will largely rest the entirety of its political ambitions on the fact that it is the only viable alternative available to voters. 

Indeed, Democrats are so uninterested in broadening their political message beyond anti-Trump talking points, they have even scuttled their party’s official 2024 “autopsy” report. In the wake of recent electoral victories by anti-Trump candidates, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said releasing the report would merely be a “distraction” at this time. 

Sure, being the anti-Trump party might be enough to secure some short-term electoral wins, but it’s hardly a recipe for lasting democratic appeal among voters who just recently voted to put Trump back in the White House. After all, quick political victories are not necessarily indicative of broad public support — a fact that both parties often seem to forget. 

Making matters even worse is that despite both parties abandoning the sort of “big tent” strategic politicking that used to be commonplace, one or the other will inevitably win elections by default. 

The result will simply be more partisan tomfoolery from partisan opportunists buoyed by electoral success, alienating even larger swaths of American voters in the process. 

So, yes. It’s easy to be pessimistic as we head into a year that’s sure to be chock-full of political snollygosters dominating headlines and social media feeds. However, a bit of perspective can provide at least a sliver of optimism in the face of such relentless political commotion. 

For example, by historical standards, we actually live in amazing times — the absurdity of our modern politics notwithstanding. Judging by a slew of metrics used to measure human flourishing, we’re living in the golden age of humanity. 

Poverty is at a lower rate than ever before. Infant mortality rates have plummeted over the last century. Genocide is increasingly rare. Diseases that were once commonplace have been virtually eliminated thanks to medical interventions and vaccines — some of which have, disturbingly, been demonized by America’s current secretary of health. It is said that even the least advantaged Americans among us live better today than the wealthiest Rockefellers or Carnegies did a century ago — and by objective metrics that is true. 

So, while there are real challenges lying ahead for our nation, none of those problems is as daunting as the sort of bleakness humans used to face on a daily basis throughout much of recorded history. 

Perhaps even more encouraging, however, is that our nation has proven it is not easily dismantled or ruined by populist mobs or corruptible political weathercocks. We’ve endured bad presidents, moments of severe political upheaval and dire inequality before — and through it all, we’ve managed to not only survive such challenging times, but also emerge with more Americans experiencing greater freedom and prosperity as a result. 

America, as it turns out, has an uncanny ability to overcome and course-correct when our little experiment in self-governance begins to go awry. 

That’s not to say that we should sit back and relax as our democratic institutions strain under the weight of opportunistic politicians, rage-baiting influencers or populist mobs of discontented voters. But there’s no harm in imagining a near future in which “normal times” don’t look quite so chaotic, unreasonable or absurd at every turn. 

No, 2026 won’t be the year such a future arrives. However, it does seem like as good a year as any for us to start working toward it. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas and founder of Schaus Creative LLC, an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichaelor on Substack @creativediscourse.