Debilyn Molineaux serves as the catalyst for the American Future project to help everyday Americans discover and believe in a future that will be "worth it" to work together for the sake of our nation.
My new weekly column, American Future, will report on the desired future of everyday Americans as I interview a few people each week from across the nation. The four-week journey began on November 9, 2023. Zoom interviews will be ongoing.
Tim and I sat down on October 31, 2023 at my dining room table.
Debilyn: Hello Tim, it's good to sit down and talk about a future that you'd like to have for yourself - how far in the future are you thinking?
Tim: Let's go with five years.
OK, so where are you in five years? That would be 2028.
Tim: I'll be living in a small house that I own. It's a single family home that I share with others - namely my wife and child. Just one child in five years. The house is filled with possessions we love. It's a quiet neighborhood, similar to where I grew up. It may be in Maryland, or California or Illinois.
What will you be most proud of, in 2028?
Tim: My family and the people around me. I'm proud that I've helped others to grow and contributed to their accomplishments and achievements. I've made them happy. I'm also proud that I'm mostly self-sufficient and capable of taking care of myself.
In 2028, how will you spend your average day?
Tim: I'll wake up early and work out. I may do some household chores. Then I'll likely cook breakfast for my family. During the day, I'll spend time doing social work. It will be a mix of in-person and virtual, helping people to work out their problems. In the evening, it's time to relax with family and friends. Having time to play is very important to me. I'll have a few evenings to myself, maybe 2-3x per week, where I'll go out. Evenings and weekends are for having fun with friends and family.
How does your 2028 self feel, most of the time?
Tim: I am generally pretty content and able to keep anxiety at bay; to keep myself afloat. It depends on how much the world improves, and if it does, I'll feel capable and secure. Compared to myself in 2023, I am calmer and optimistic about the future. I also feel self-directed with clarity about what to do.
What are your three priority values in 2028?
Tim: Self awareness, temperance and kindness.
What does the community that supports your future need to include?
Tim: Higher compensation for social workers! I make a lot more today in tech than I could as a social worker. I would need the ability to live comfortably with a family on one income, that could take the form of higher wages, lower housing costs, universal basic income, etc. We will need community based childcare, something that the families in the neighborhood could do together. We need a community where meeting basic needs is easy, from housing to activities to transportation to healthy food. Also, there is a new norm of handling conflict in a healthy way -- sometimes through compromise. There is an element of seeking to understand others, first.
Is there anything you can do today or in the near future to co-create the future you vision?
Tim: I'm looking for a partner to start a family.
This piece was originally published on November 2, 2023 AmericanFuture.us
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.