Copenhaver is a Millennial Mentor, Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, Host of “The Changemaker Podcast”, Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Former Mayor of Augusta, and Founding Partner of #StartsWithUs.
I have long had concerns about the growing power of the “tyranny of the minority” with regards to wielding undue influence at all levels of government. Having spent nine years serving as Augusta, Georgia’s mayor, I saw tangible and troubling examples of this concept arise on an ongoing basis throughout my time in office. Generally, all a small group of very vocal citizens had to do to influence the outcome of almost any vote by the governing body in their favor was to simply pack our commission chambers with a loud and raucous group.
I can’t even count the number of times I witnessed this scenario play out where professional staff and legal recommendations on votes, many which would have benefited the majority of the citizens we served, were cast aside in the face of an angry mob in a chamber with a total seating capacity of 212. To put this into perspective, a maximum of 212 people in those chambers represents .106 percent of Augusta’s total population of just over 200,000. To call this the tail wagging the dog would be a vast understatement but it didn’t stop my colleagues from voting to appease the vocal minority and subsequently bask in their praise from those gathered in a silo of governmental dysfunction.
However, the local examples of this troubling phenomenon I witnessed pale in comparison to the events, and the potentially catastrophic consequences, which unfolded in Congress on October 3rd. I honestly believe the removal of Congressman Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House led by Congressman Matt Gaetz with the support of seven other Republican congressmen exemplifies the most egregious example of the tyranny of the minority our nation has ever seen.
In demonizing a bipartisan, albeit temporary, solution to keep our government open and avoid the inevitable negative impact a shutdown would have on millions of Americans, this small group’s shortsighted action has flown in the face of the vast majority of Americans who want to see representatives of both parties participating in solving the critical issues facing our nation in bipartisan fashion. Evidence of the majority of our nation’s citizens supporting bipartisan action was provided earlier this year with a Newsnation/Decision Desk HQ poll revealing 75% of Americans agree that, “members of Congress should be willing to compromise and prioritize bipartisan legislation over standing with their party.”
Although Matt Gaetz portrays himself as a voice of the people, consider these statistics. Last year Congressman Gaetz was elected with 197,349 total votes representing 67% of the votes cast in the 1st Congressional District of Florida. Impressive, right? But also consider the total population of District 1 is 785,773, so Mr. Gaetz’s vote total represents the support of 25% of his total constituency. And when broken down against America’s total population of 326.7 million, his vote total represents the support of .06% of our nation’s citizenry. Yet this one man, with virtually no seniority in our nation’s Congress, was able to orchestrate the removal of a Speaker of the House for the first time in our nation’s history. Mr. Gaetz has made the point that the Speaker of the House should be a person who members of Congress can trust.
As the world looks on with very real concerns for the survival of America’s democracy past the 2024 election cycle, the actions we’ve just witnessed in Congress are a very public and blatant display of the extreme polarization which threatens to tear our democracy apart. The fact that a small group of extremely insular elected officials could create this type of chaos should cause great concern to citizens throughout our nation. These individuals may receive praise, cheers and adulation in the silos and echo chambers where they find comfort, but I’m hopeful the American people will take notice and see this for the power play that it is and the unquestionable undermining impact these actions have on the future of our democracy.
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.