A lifelong resident of the Cleveland area, Ted Wetzel is an engineer who spent five years at a Fortune 500 company, 17 years in marketing and management at smaller manufacturers, and then 11 years as a small-business owner before turning to his passion project. He created Fighting to Understand to spread the message that civic education and a collaborative spirit among everyday Americans can restore the core values of a democratic republic for the next generation. With a diverse group of 18 collaborators, in October he self-published the first edition of a book now titled "9 Secrets for Avoiding Divided We Fall" and is working on a plan for widespread distribution this spring. His answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What's democracy's biggest challenge, in 10 words or less.
Most people don't want freedom; they would settle for a just master. (I'm not sure who to attribute this verse to.)
Describe your very first civic engagement.
In about 1995 I revived our homeowners' association. We had very few civic problems, so our goal was to create a spirit of neighborliness. One lesson is that relationships have a certain inertia that carries the spirit for decades but attrition will also weaken the spirit, often in a stealthy way. So an intentionality of inclusion is a leadership trait to be relished.
After what I view as my second civic engagement, coaching Little League, I focused on my career until 18 months ago. Then a switch flipped inside of me, asking, "Is America broken?" What would an average citizen learn if they could call time out to study that question full time? Feeling that there was no choice, I handed off my business responsibilities and went on a search for America. Now we hope the book brings hope to Americans, and we hope the book gives Americans options for how to get involved in We the People 2.0.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
Being part of an authentically functional leadership team, as VP of sales and marketing at a company that designed and manufactured switches and electronics for appliances. The cherry on top was staging celebrations, including song parodies performed by employees, when we received a supplier performance award from an appliance company. Oh — the cake onto which the cherry was placed was growing in 15 years from $4 million to $32 million in revenue.
And your most disappointing setback?
After the switch company, I purchased a small paint contracting business. We survived for 11 years but, when I'm honest with myself, my formula for growth by liberating the employees to build a virtuous cycle of opportunity was not well founded
How does some aspect of your identity influence the way you go about your work?
If I had to pick one word for my identity, perhaps "searcher" is appropriate. That's the trait that made it a joy to go after answers to the question "Is America broken?" Although there are quite a lot of common values among us Americans, I continue to be amazed that even after my 200th interview, the one after that always added a new insight. So it follows that many early answers to my question ended up in the recycle bin. Perhaps that makes me more of a "re-searcher."
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Life is like a bicycle. It is easiest to steer if you keep moving.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Red, White & You! The packaging concept is: The quart is split down the center to form half-moon shapes — but they stay together so you have to pass it back and forth. And each side is filled with striped or swirled red and white. And it's packaged with 2 spoons.
What's your favorite political movie or TV show?
"Poldark," the British historical period drama on PBS that starts at the end of the 18th century. I like that bad things happen for no good reason to good people, people die, trusts are compromised, famine strikes, envy festers — and life goes on, forgiveness is found, new growth sprouts and it takes a village.
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Set the alarm. More importantly, for my first phone contact in the morning, I enjoy a short meditation email from the Center for Action and Contemplation.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
I'd be lost without Post-It Notes. When I'm in searcher mode, I can fill up walls with them.
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.