Wudel is an advocate for election reform and eliminating political corruption. She volunteers for many democracy groups, including RepresentUs.
I am a constitutional conservative, born in the heartland of the West and raised in the plains of Texas. While the conservative label can mean many things, at its core it means preserving liberty, equality and the constitution. Without free and fair elections, no country can claim it values liberty or equality.
Unfortunately, America’s elections are plagued with corruption and partisanship. But we can fix these flaws with the Freedom to Vote Act. We can strengthen our elections by making certain they do not unfairly favor one party, and striving to put people of all backgrounds on an equal playing field. We also need strong election security so fraud doesn’t taint the results. The Freedom to Vote Act does these things and more, and I urge my fellow conservatives to support it.
One way we can promote equality in elections is by banning gerrymandering, a tactic partisans use to draw congressional lines in a way that virtually guarantees their party wins. Most representatives can safely win their seats without needing to find broad support in the communities they represent.
Because of gerrymandering, only 43 U.S. House races – about 10 percent – were competitive in 2020. Representatives in gerrymandered districts tend to be more extreme because no matter what they do, they likely aren’t risking their electoral prospects. The will of voters in those districts who didn’t support the elected candidates becomes swallowed up in partisan ambition and extreme polarization. As defenders of equality, conservatives should oppose gerrymandering. The Freedom to Vote Act would ban partisan gerrymandering and allow states to choose how to draw fair districts.
Making voting accessible is another way our elections can promote equality. Recent attempts by partisans to decrease the number of voting days, arbitrarily reject valid voter ID methods, and discourage vote by mail are betrayals of the principles and values the Constitution aspires to. The Freedom to Vote Act proposes at least 15 consecutive days of early voting, and Election Day would be an official holiday. These are sensible reforms that ensure all people have enough time and opportunities to vote.
Lastly, many conservatives have been concerned about corruption in our electoral process – in some cases leading them to contest legitimate results and even engage in violence. The Freedom to Vote Act imposes penalties for voter intimidation and giving false election information. Additionally, it gives election officials greater protections against partisan removals, protects against the intentional mishandling of ballots, and prevents the illegal purging of voter rolls. It also requires disclosure of all political spending, including online ads, and cooperation between candidates and super PACs. Conservatives should support this bill to make elections more secure.
It is vital to the health of our democracy that we restore faith in our elections. A threat to one person’s vote is a threat to all. As we strive to live up to our ideals of liberty and equality, we must put down our partisan hats and recognize the need to strengthen our institutions and eliminate the partisan corruption tearing it down. Our constitutional republic depends on it.
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.