Ashburn is a high school junior in Broward County, Fla., and a founder of two nonprofits, Students for Open Primaries, which will be launched nationwide next week, and Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen. This piece was originally published by Independent Voter News.
Ever since I accompanied my mother to vote about a decade ago, I have been anxiously awaiting my 18th birthday. I remember walking with my mother into the polling place one sunny afternoon, listening as she explained what we were about to do. I watched her fill in her ballot and stood on my toes to try to catch a glance at the candidates' names. I was envious of the "I voted" sticker she got when she was done, and I couldn't wait to get my own sticker someday.
As I grew older and began to form my own political beliefs, the desire to vote became stronger. I watched the news and political satire, researched candidates and read about the hot-button political issues of the day — all of which influenced my political alignment.
I was staunchly pro-Republican for a while, then staunchly pro-Democrat. Eventually I realized my beliefs did not fully align with any party, so I decided I wouldn't be a part of any party.
But I didn't know at the time that the decision to become independent would deny me the right to vote.
In Florida, where I live, we have a closed primary system. Independents (also called non-party affiliates, or NPAs) and third-party voters are shut out of primary elections based on their political affiliation (or their lack thereof), even though their tax dollars are used to pay for these elections. Talk about taxation without representation!
There are 3.7 million independent voters in Florida, which is about a third of the electorate. Independents come from all walks of life and political ideologies, but closed primaries disproportionately affect young voters like me. The younger generations are more politically independent than ever before. About half of all Millennials and more than one-third of Gen Z voters identify as independent, making the next generation of the electorate the largest and most independent in our nation's history.
In Florida, and many states, our general elections have become so uncompetitive that most real choices happen in the primary. Many general elections are predetermined. Partisans tell us just to get out and exercise our right to vote in the general election, but we're not stupid. We see the fix is in right before our eyes. We need to abandon the partisan systems we have in place that are keeping us apart and build institutions that actually reflect us.
I had the opportunity to start a student campaign for open primaries last summer. Along with my partner Dariel Cruz Rodriguez, we launched Students for Open Primaries in my home state. Florida had a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would have let all voters vote in a top-two open primary system. We advocated for the amendment and organized fellow students to speak out for reform.
We tirelessly campaigned for four months. We ran a social media campaign, we called young voters, we spoke at virtual town halls, we did media interviews and, yes, we even wrote op eds. We dedicated our summer and much of our fall to the cause. But when Election Day came, the amendment, unfortunately, failed to pass — falling 3 percent short of the 60 percent supermajority required.
Because of that loss, I will not be able to cast my first-ever ballot in next year's primaries as an NPA.
But here's the thing, I'm still independent. And there are millions of young people across the country who, like me, can't vote because of closed primaries. We are American citizens, and we have a right to vote!
That's why Dariel and I have teamed up with the Open Primaries Education Fund to take our group national — because young voters are ready for change.
We are committed to educating students and organizing student leaders in every state to speak out for democratic reform. We are launching a comprehensive education program that teaches students about America's primary systems and equips them with the knowledge they need to bring open primaries to their state. We hope to cultivate a community full of passionate students ready to create real change in their communities.
Even though I will not be able to vote as an NPA in my first election, I am still fighting to have my voice and the voices of all my fellow young independents heard. Students for Open Primaries is ready to aid in that fight, advocating for the rights of every voter regardless of political affiliation.
Visit IVN.us for more coverage from Independent Voter News.
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.