After three decades as an investigative and political reporter and newspaper editor in the Chicago area, Madeleine Doubek switched to democracy reform advocacy three years ago. First came the Better Government Association, a nonprofit journalism outfit aiming to boost transparency and efficiency of the state government in Springfield, and for the past year she has served as executive director of CHANGE Illinois. Its top priority is persuading the solidly Democratic General Assembly and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to agree to put a referendum on the 2020 ballot turning over congressional and legislative redistricting to an independent commission. (The deadline is early May and three similar efforts have come up short.) Her answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What's democracy's biggest challenge, in 10 words or less?
Gerrymandering is where corruption and voter suppression are born.
Describe your very first civic engagement.
At some point as a very young kid, I stood in the front hallway of our two-flat row house on the South Side of Chicago, listening and talking with the local Democratic Party precinct captain who paid my mom a visit before every election.
What was your biggest professional triumph?
Getting a law passed while I led the policy department at the Better Government Association that restricts the exorbitant, golden parachute severance packages that public executives get in Illinois.
And your most disappointing setback?
Having our Fair Maps Amendment blocked from being assigned to committee or debated despite having more than three-fifths of our state senators signed on as sponsors.
How does your identity influence the way you go about your work?
I've spent most of my adult life working as a political journalist so I am constantly thinking about new ways to communicate the need for systemic democracy reforms in a way that will make people stop what they're doing and get engaged. It's an unending quest.
What's the best advice you've ever been given?
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Create a new flavor for Ben & Jerry's.
Bipartisan Blueberry Cashew Ripple
What's your favorite political movie or TV show?
"All the President's Men." Politics, newspapers, investigations and intrigue. Robert Redford. What more could you want? Although, another great one is "Deadline-USA," with Humphrey Bogart. If you've never seen it, check it out!
What's the last thing you do on your phone at night?
Check my calendar for the following day to make sure I didn't forget something.
What is your deepest, darkest secret?
I hate having to ask for donations so we can keep fighting for an improved Illinois.
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.