This is the ninth installment of an ongoing Q&A series.
As Democrats take power in Washington, if only tenuously, many democracy reform groups see a potential path toward making the American political system work better. In this installment, Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano answers our questions about 2020 accomplishments and plans for the year ahead. His organization advocates for nonpartisan political reforms and supports candidates committed to cross-partisanship. (Unite America is a funder of The Fulcrum.)
First, let's briefly recap 2020. What was your biggest triumph last year?
It's a cliche to say at this point, but last year was unprecedented. Culturally, politically, economically. Despite this, I think our biggest accomplishment came in our ability to adapt and overcome, reacting to the unknown unknowns. I'm proud to say that the pandemic didn't slow us down, it just shifted our direction.
Our biggest triumph was establishing the Unite America Fund, and mobilizing a cross-partisan community of donors to collectively invest in the reforms and candidates committed to reforming our democracy.
We are proud of all the campaigns and organizations we invested in, especially the successful ballot initiative for final-four voting in Alaska. Despite opposition from both political parties, the voters in Alaska prevailed.
And your biggest setback?
I think our setbacks were the movement's setbacks — court decisions that didn't go our way (often for very partisan reasons), the inability to gather petition signatures (due to Covid-19), and the general toxicity of the political environment that polarized what should otherwise be nonpartisan issues like access to voting.
What is one learning experience you took from 2020?
It was incredible to see organizations across the movement work together, build together, and support one another in our collective effort to ensure a safe and secure election for the American people. There was record turnout, and it worked. It's a good reminder of everything we can accomplish working together.
Now let's look ahead. What issues will your organization prioritize in 2021?
We're focused on ensuring the victories in 2020 are just the start of a broader era of reform. We're going to amplify the 2020 victories, continuing to invest in their implementation, and share their impact to bring more people into the movement.
We are also prioritizing legislative campaigns across the country this year, including in three states where Unite America has helped to build bipartisan and bicameral legislative caucuses that are focused on electoral reform and evidenced-based policymaking.
How will Democratic control of the federal government change the ways you work toward your goals?
While Democratic control may open some new opportunities for electoral reform at the federal level, it won't change the way we work insofar as building support in both parties to ensure nonpartisan reform stays just that: nonpartisan. Like any other issue area, big change requires big majorities in order to be sustained and trusted — and that's especially true when it comes to writing the rules of our electoral system.
What do you think will be your biggest challenge moving forward? And how do you plan to tackle it?
The biggest challenge now will be to keep the foot on the gas; with a new presidency, there may be people who become complacent with the status quo.
Our job is to continue to make the argument that the divisive partisanship and threats to democracy that we saw over the last four years will not end with the Trump presidency. We must continue to work to change the underlying incentives that brought us here in the first place.
Finish the sentence. In two years, American democracy will …
will not fix itself. It's on 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.