As we turn the final pages on a tumultuous 2021, all this week The Fulcrum will share a year-end series of guest commentaries from a distinguished group of columnists on the current state of electoral reform and what we may expect in the upcoming year.
Moore is executive director of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers.
Americans are tired. Yes, we’re tired of the pandemic, but I’m talking about something deeper, structural and core to our nation’s identity. Our collective malaise is rooted in the frustration and dissatisfaction that borders on despair we feel when we hear the words like “politics,” “government” or “vote.” We are tired because we feel like things are getting worse, our elected officials don’t care, and we are powerless to fix the situation.
Politics, it seems, has an acute sense of irony. Despite the many issues that divide us, it is this profound sense of demoralization on which voters of all parties agree. Regardless of income, education, race, gender, geographic location or party affiliation, an increasing number of voters look upon the American democracy with disappointment. This is not the republic we ordered.
The good news is: Change is coming.
A renewed sense of civic duty, purpose and honest-to-goodness excitement percolates in communities throughout the country. In every state of the union, from the harbors of Maine to the Missourian plains and from sunny California to the Alaskan frontier, American voters (even the tired ones) have declared an end to the business-as-usual, politicians-and-lobbyists-first style of government. In living rooms and Zoom meetings across the country, people are convening around shared goals, making connections with like-minded friends and neighbors, and catalyzing those relationships and their pooled resources into making structural reforms that benefit our democracy as a whole.
Four years ago, the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers was born at one such convening. Leaders from several of the most prominent organizations focused on democracy reform gathered together in good faith with a shared vision and recognition of what was happening throughout the country. We believe that a more fair and competitive election system will not only strengthen our democracy but will also improve the responsiveness and credibility of the two major parties. We favor a robust competition of numerous political parties and independents and a level playing field on which that can occur.
Today our association has nearly 50 members, including organizations that are leading the way for pro-voter structural reforms like open primaries, ranked-choice voting, approval voting, anti-corruption measures, independent redistricting, and measures to close the loopholes and get money out of politics. We strive to convene the thought-leaders of the democracy reform movement, connect our members to one another and the resources they need to do their work more effectively and efficiently, and enable our members to catalyze their effort into positive, meaningful change for their communities.
As we move into 2022, we are launching new initiatives to promote these goals among our members. “Reformers Unite!” is a monthly education and networking series to help connect organizations and campaigns on common issues and in geographic regions. “Reformers Lead” is a masterclass series designed for executives and organizational leaders interested in honing their leadership skills. We are also refreshing our dues structure to ensure more organizations can join and benefit from membership in our association.
Why this is important: America can’t afford to be on autopilot; it demands our attention and our focus. The democracy of the United States has been a model for the rest of the world because of the diligent men and women who have shepherded it through history with grace, grit and persistence. I encourage you to become a member of NANR and join the family of democracy reformers your grandchildren will read about in their history books.
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.