Kevin Miller, from McFarland, WI, is an Army Veteran and Wisconsin VPI State Task Force Leader
Courage, sacrifice, duty, honor, and country. If you attended a Memorial Day event, you likely heard these terms used to remember and honor military members who gave their lives in service and defense of our nation.
And while thousands of Americans did attend such ceremonies, a significantly larger number instead “celebrated” Memorial Day by shopping appliance sales, attending cookouts, or having a beer with friends and family. Full disclosure: I absolutely had a Memorial Day cookout with family and friends, and took advantage of a Memorial Day military discount at a local greenhouse.
But the truth is, we cannot honor fallen service members with one day of remembrance or honor all who served with one day of Veterans’ Day events in November. To honor service members and their sacrifices requires everyday actions that actually help preserve our country and its democracy.
I joined the military in 1986 and have continued to serve for over thirty-seven years. But I consider the other work I am doing more important to ensuring the future of our democracy in honoring fallen service members and fellow veterans. This work is not exclusive; it is work available to every American.
Unfortunately, this work is not easy in the current political environment. It requires real critical thinking and an ability to block out the rhetoric coming from the left and the right. One must be willing to dismiss as fact the arguments of those who benefit from our current election process.
I work with a nonpartisan nonprofit organization called Veterans for Political Innovation (VPI). We are one of several organizations working on congressional election reform that will hold elected officials accountable to their constituents rather than political parties and wealthy campaign donors. This reform is Final Five Voting (a top-five open primary and instant runoff general election).
We are advocating for Final Five Voting because the current partisan primaries and plurality general elections are actually quite undemocratic. Under the current system, over 80 percent of Congress was essentially selected by less than 10 percent of the electorate. In addition, half of all military service members identify as independent—unaffiliated with a political party—and are consequently entirely shut out of many states’ primaries.
Essentially, this reform works by having all candidates for a U.S. Senate or Congressional seat run together on a single primary ballot, regardless of party affiliation, if any at all. Each primary voter selects one candidate. The top five vote recipients from the primary face off in an instant runoff general election through which no candidate can win without securing an actual majority of the votes cast (e.g. no plurality winners and no spoilers or wasted votes).
This simple change is incredibly powerful in addressing the most toxic aspects of elections— attack ads, pandering to extremists, out-of-control campaign spending, and a lack of accountability. Even more important, those elected through these reforms can actually get things done, putting their constituents’ needs ahead of political parties, wealthy donors, and extremists.
We are fortunate that in Wisconsin there is already bipartisan legislative support for Final Five Voting. On June 12th, there will be an event in Chippewa Falls with Republican State Senator Jesse James and Democrat State Senator Jeff Smith discussing proposed legislation for Final Five Voting.
As a veteran, I am regularly thanked for my service and see and hear the phrase, “We support our troops.” If you’ve ever expressed such a sentiment and wanted to walk the talk, I strongly encourage you to learn about and support the efforts to implement Final Five Voting in Wisconsin. You can learn more at www.v-pi.org (for info on the June 12th event, select “Menu” and “Upcoming Events)”.
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.