More long lines, the smell of disinfectant and the sight of poll workers in rubber gloves are at the intersection of another big day of Democratic presidential voting and the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
As if there wasn't already enough public skepticism about the reliability of American elections, officials in six states were working Tuesday to assure voters they could participate in democracy's central rite and stay healthy at the same time — so long as they exercise common sense and basic hygiene.
The day began with some reassuring statistics. No confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported in Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota or Michigan, the biggest prize of the day. There's a single Covid-19 patient in Missouri. And the biggest state in the nation where everyone is permitted to vote by mail is Washington, meaning Democrats in the state that also has the biggest known coronavirus exposure so far — 19 deaths and another 100 or so confirmed cases — have no need to get near a voting booth on primary day.
Perhaps the biggest potential election-related health threat in Washington is people using saliva to seal their ballots, which have to be postmarked by Tuesday night. Democratic Secretary of State Kim Wyman has ordered gloves for everyone opening voting envelopes and is asking voters to use a damp cloth on their mail-in ballots.
Her mantra: "Whether healthy or sick, please don't lick."
Michigan also allowed people to cast presidential primary ballots early, either by mail or at their town hall, starting six weeks ago — and evidence is that a solid share of Democrats took advantage of this new option, tamping down a rush to the polls Tuesday. With 125 delegates at stake in the first primary among the Midwestern battleground states, Sen. Bernie Sanders is banking heavily on a victory as a firewall against the new momentum behind former Vice President Joe Biden.
In a memo to election clerks last week, Michigan officials urged poll workers to distribute hand sanitizers and wipes, plus keep latex gloves at the polling places and wipe down voting equipment, registration tables, pens and doorknobs with disinfectant.
Similar guidance was being given in the other four states, where all the voting is taking place in person — meaning people will have to stand in close proximity and then use equipment that's been touched by hundreds of others.
Crowded and cramped polling places are less a health risk for voters than for poll workers, who are inside the whole day. The federal government estimates that in 2018 three-fifths of the nation's poll workers were older than 61, and elderly people are the most susceptible to a virus. This suggests that recruiting people to serve as precinct-level election officials, which has already become more difficult in recent years, could become a bigger problem if Covid-19 remains a public health crisis into the fall.
"We cannot afford to wait until November to discover we don't have an adequate number of poll workers to manage this most consequential election," said the National Vote at Home Institute, which advocates for having the entire country vote by mail.
In the short term, "We're encouraging voters to make sure they wash their hands as often as possible and continue to practice good hygiene," GOP Secretary of State Michael Watson of Mississippi said. "With no confirmed cases in our state, we obviously still want to remain cautious. We encourage all Mississippians to go vote."
"Go to the polls," urged GOP Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft of Missouri, promising his state knew how to conduct healthy primaries because such balloting always happens in the state during flu season.
"I would, as politely as possible, tell people to follow through on their responsibility to participate and help to continue to make this state and this country the best it can be. And that happens when the people of this state in this country get out and make their voice heard," he said on ABC.
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.”
____
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.