Respect Democrat in a mess (6)
I believe the answer is:
admire
'respect' is the definition.
(I know that admire is a more specific form of the action respect)
'democrat in a mess' is the wordplay.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'mess' becomes 'mire' (mire can mean a messy or complex situation).
'a'+'mire'='amire'
'd' going into 'amire' is 'ADMIRE'.
(Other definitions for admire that I've seen before include "Idolise" , "Esteem, look up to" , "Regard approvingly" , "Have high regard for, think well of" , "Esteem, have high regard for" .)