Bonnie Miller spent months working to get a measure on next week's Arkansas ballot that would have turned the state's political map making over to an independent commission. Her Arkansas Voters First Campaign gathered the necessary 150,000 signatures but was stopped on very narrow grounds by the state Supreme Court, meaning redistricting for this decade will be a partisan exercise controlled by elected Republicans. But Miller says she's not giving up on bettering democracy in her adopted home state, where she runs the League of Women Voters chapter in Fayetteville and is on the staff of the state university's law school. Her answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What's the tweet-length description of your organization?
The League of Women Voters seeks to improve government and impact public policies through education and advocacy.
Describe your very first civic engagement.
I ran for student government in middle school in southern California — unsuccessfully! My platform was not great and centered around more pizza and establishing dress-up days at school. I used a Mr. Potato Head during my campaign speech. Don't ask.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
Chairing our Arkansas Voters First campaign. Leading a grassroots movement to establish people-powered fair maps in our state has been the highlight of my life. I've been able to work with so many wonderful people who are passionate about redistricting reform and move our state closer to that goal.
And your most disappointing setback?
Having our ballot initiative disqualified based on a procedural technicality. We expected opposition but thought we would at least have the opportunity to campaign on the issue. Instead, the court removed our proposal from the November ballot despite our having met all of the requirements to get on. The secretary of state, who sits on the board of politicians responsible for drawing legislative districts, fought us every step of the way. This proves exactly why politicians should not have the power to draw districts and how far they're willing to go to keep it — including disenfranchising voters. We won't stop fighting for fair maps in Arkansas!
How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?
Having grown up in a biracial household, I've always been aware there are different realities for people of color and white folks living in America. Seeing first-hand how my Latinx family experiences democracy and engages with politics has directly impacted the issues important to me. I want to live in a country where all people are equally represented in their government. Gerrymandering undermines representative democracy, especially when done for purposes of diluting the votes of Black, Indigenous and other people of color.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Don't respond from a place of heightened emotion. For me, this is always a work in progress.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Caturday: peanut butter ice cream with swirls of chocolate fudge and Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups. The perfect Caturday treat.
What is your favorite TV show or movie about politics?
HBO's "Veep." Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer is brilliant.
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Set my alarm. I usually check it at least three times before I fall asleep to make sure it's set.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
I love to turn off the lights and dance alone to '90s pop hits in my house. You have to find joy where and how you can.
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.”
____
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.