Welcome to November, a month of vivid landscapes and reflective moments. As we approach Veterans Day, our thoughts naturally turn to the diverse and nuanced experiences of veterans.
This is a time not only for gratitude but also for deeper understanding. An organization called Veterans for All Voters reminds us to extend our recognition beyond a simple “thank you.”
The Veterans Day Message was written by Navy veterans Todd Connor and Eric Bronner of Veterans for All Voters. Their words resonate deeply and underscore the importance of active, meaningful engagement.
The Message
With Veterans Day upon us, it’s appropriate to thank military veterans and their family members for their service. There is something else we can do, though, and that is to ask them to continue serving by working to shore up our fragile republican democracy. To really honor veterans, and to allow them to continue to serve us as civilians, we need to grant them full access to civic life.
This begins, most importantly, with voting — where in 2020, almost 26 million independent Americans, including hundreds of thousands of military veterans, were barred by state election laws from participating in the presidential preference primaries. This unnecessary structural defect means that many Active Duty independent voters and veterans can’t even vote for their next Commander in Chief.
The two of us are proud Navy veterans. We learned and grew so much during our time of service. We are grateful for this country, our fellow citizens, and the opportunity to serve. Because we love this country so much, we have decided — as many veterans do — to continue serving. In our case, we are building and mobilizing a community of fellow military veterans to advocate for healthy electoral competition that will, in turn, make our politics less toxic.
Our organization, Veterans for All Voters, is fighting to let all voters — including over 50% of military voters who are independent (nonpartisan/unaffiliated) — fully participate in their taxpayer-funded public elections. Through open and competitive elections, we can make our government more responsible and politicians more accountable to all of us.
So, today, if you would like to thank one of our more than 285 veteran leaders in 47 states for their service, please consider one of the following actions:
- Join the nonpartisan reform movement and advocate for structural reforms that allow all eligible voters to fully participate in elections.
- Introduce a veteran or anyone who is “military-connected” to Veterans for All Voters.
- Donate to our nonpartisan nonprofit that is making a tremendous impact around the country and giving dozens of military veterans a new mission post-service.
We are military veterans from all walks of life, and every part of the political spectrum, banding together to make politics less toxic and our Republic more representative through fully open, nonpartisan, public elections. Simply put, we are fighting to #LetAllVotersVote in every single public election.
Please consider going beyond “thank you” this Veterans Day, and join or support the independent reform movement that we are building. Onward!
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.