New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, grassroots organization. Our mission is to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics and government and make the government work for ALL the people of New Mexico and our country.New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics has joined forces with the national organization RepresentUs to further expand its efforts to fight corruption in elections and government at the federal, state and local level
On July 7 at 5:30pm, RUNM will host its first official event in the form of a Zoom Launch Party. The lineup of speakers is still being developed but so far it includes Senator Tom Udall, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber and leadership of RUNM. Details about the launch, how to register and join in will be made available at www.nmmop.org and on the NMMOP and RUNM Facebook pages.
NMMOP was founded in 2016 by Bruce Berlin and others to engage in education, advocacy and activism for democracy reform. It was later incorporated as a New Mexico nonprofit on November 17, 2017. It officially changed its name to RUNM in April 2020. Since its inception, the volunteer organization has been working to restore truly representative democracy in New Mexico and the USA.
Over the past four years NMMOP, now RUNM, has been making waves, raising awareness and working towards ending the corruptive influence of Big Money and Dark Money through a variety of nonpartisan efforts. In addition to forming coalitions and alliances with other aligned non-profits, it worked, with others, to get New Mexico state legislators to pass HJM 10, a statement supporting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reform campaign finance, making New Mexico the 20th state to do so. It has worked with New Mexico cities, towns and counties to pass similar resolutions.
RUNM has also worked with New Mexico’s congressional delegation, state legislators and city and county officials on its democracy reform goals which include: reestablishing the right and authority of government to regulate campaign finance contributions and expenditures, increasing voters’ rights and protections, increasing campaign finance and lobbyist reporting, expanding public campaign finance regimes and ending gerrymandering.
“Joining forces with RepresentUs, a well-established organization with a national presence and influence, will help us achieve greater results from our efforts,” said John House, RUNM President.
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.