Richard Davies is a journalist and podcaster. He runs the podcast consultancy, DaviesContent, and co-hosts “How Do We Fix It?” and “Let’s Find Common Ground”.
Most of us who keep up with news and current events are at times frustrated with how the media covers politics, race and culture. All too often news coverage is dominated by clashes, controversies, contests and celebrities rather than reports that include potential solutions. The emphasis is on what’s wrong rather than how things might be put right. So it’s no surprise that a large national meeting in Gettysburg during four days in July passed by almost unnoticed by the mainstream media.
The Braver Angels convention was an unusual gathering of nearly 700 people— Republicans and Democrats in approximately equal numbers. The movement’s co-founder and Braver Angels President David Blankenhorn told delegates they were at “the largest gathering so far this century of Red and Blue American leaders coming together in equal numbers and on equal terms to bridge our divides and save our country.”
Most of us who showed up spent up to 15 hours each day attending plenary sessions, breakout meetings and small group conversations. It was exhausting, but exhilarating. Delegates ate together and slept in college dorms. Some said they enjoyed being in a “safe space for disagreements” as they listened to those from the other side without feeling they had to bite their tongues or check their own opinions at the door.
On the morning of the final day, Republican Governor Spencer Cox of Utah was given a standing ovation after bounding onstage and telling the crowd “you are my people.” Cox and other speakers warned of the threats to democracy from extreme partisanship. “Rights without responsibility and sacrifice leads to chaos and a house divided that cannot long stand,” said the Governor.
“The radical selfishness we see today on both the extreme right and the extreme left is rotting our increasingly fragile republic," he added.
As this year’s new Chair of the National Governors Association, Cox spoke of his plans to launch an initiative called Healthy Conflict and Disagree Better. Governors of both parties, says the Association, will explore “a more positive and optimistic way of working through our problems.”
The convention was held on the campus of Gettysburg College, 160 years after the three-day battle in July 1863 that changed the course of the Civil War. Gettysburg was also the site of President Lincoln’s famous address.
Braver Angels, originally named Better Angels, was formed in 2016. In the introduction to this year’s agenda, the organizers wrote: “On the grounds of a great battlefield of our Civil War, we’ll meet to prevent another civil war— a war in which we tear ourselves apart with anger and distrust.”
Braver Angels is part of a growing national movement to bridge political divides. Bridge Alliance, Bridging Movement Alliance Council (BMAC), Listen First Project and Common Ground Committee are among leading innovators in the space. After facing criticism that Braver Angels had failed to fully take account of other bridging groups, the movement formed Braver Networks. Dozens of organizations have joined the outreach effort, including StoryCorps and All Sides to BridgeUSA and the Institute for Local Government.
Much of the work of Braver Angels is done by determined volunteers in their local chapters. While some regions are stronger than others, training sessions and group meetings have been held in many states. One example is “Red-Blue workshops” where small evenly divided groups of conservatives and liberals gather for a series of structured exercises aimed at helping participants “clarify disagreements, reduce stereotyped thinking and discover common values.”
Overall, the mood of the four-day Gettysburg convention was surprisingly hopeful given the enormity of the task before the delegates. But in the words of one Braver Angels leader, the first big step in pushing back against today’s rigid polarization and fierce negativity is to recognize that the nation is facing a crisis.
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.