In recent years, more and more technology experts have been developing new tools for boosting civic engagement. Sara Gifford embodies the trend. At the end of 2018 she set aside her budding tech career — after a decade at supply-chain software firm Quintiq she'd become chief operating officer for Dispatch, which makes software connecting home-service brands with contractors and clients — and co-founded ActiVote Inc. Its free app aims to increase political participation by giving voters access to information about candidates and elections, as well as encouraging their civic engagement. Her answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What's the tweet-length description of your organization?
We are a safe, nonpartisan space for voters to learn about their elections, the races, how to vote and which candidates believe what they believe. An informed voter feels empowered. And an empowered voter shows up to vote.
Describe your very first civic engagement.
My parents voted at our elementary school in rural Connecticut and would take my sisters and me to the polls with them. I remember not being allowed into my classroom until my parents voted. When I whined and complained, they would tell me there is nothing more important than voting and not to take school — or democracy — for granted.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
When you build something the question is always: But does it work? Well, last month we finished a study showing that downloading our app increases your chance of voting 33 percent. This was very encouraging for us. More importantly it should be encouraging to everyone else in this space. It means there are new and innovative ways to get people to the polls.
And your most disappointing setback?
There is an old saying, "It can take years and years of hard work to become an overnight success." We are working hard for our overnight success to come! But, no worries: See the answer to the question below about advice.
How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?
I have heart. I am relentless. I am dedicated. I take all of those values and apply them to life and to our work increasing voter participation, because it takes all of those things to maintain our democracy.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is." We may not always be as successful or as fast as we would like, but the one thing we can control is our endless drive to want to do good and to work hard to get there.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Vote Ready: Strawberry and vanilla ice cream with blue sprinkles built on top of chocolate brownies.
What's your favorite political movie or TV show?
"The West Wing," which ran from 1999 to 2006 on NBC and is now available on Netflix.
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Set up my white noise app so that I sleep like a baby.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
As a kid I once hid the last piece to a puzzle my little sister and I were doing, knowing it would drive her crazy. But when it came down to finishing the puzzle I couldn't remember where I hid it. Still have never told her!
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.