The Democracy Initiative is a coalition of 75 progressive groups advocating for voting rights and campaign finance regulation. On the board are Karen Hobert Flynn of Common Cause, Tefere Gebre of the AFL-CIO, Ray Curry of the United Auto Workers union, Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, Virginia Kase of the League of Women Voters, Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth, K. Sabeel Rahman of Demos and Gustavo Torres of CASA.
In the United States, we the people elect our leaders and every voter has the right to have her or his vote counted.
That article of faith has sustained us to this Election Day. But our democracy is facing a severe and unprecedented stress test. During a historically deadly coronavirus pandemic that has remade the campaign, we have seen attempts to make it harder for people to vote safely, efforts backed by "dark money"to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the results; and a new Supreme Court justice rushed through the Senate just days before a presidential election that may very well require a ruling by that very same court.
Despite all these cynical maneuvers, a record-shattering 97 million had already cast their ballots, by mail or in person, by the start of Monday afternoon — suggesting that, by the time voting ends Tuesday, the share of eligible voters turning out will be greater than in more than a century. It will be up to state and local election officials, not any candidate, to process, count and certify the results.
There are no sidelines in our democracy. Every citizen, regardless of party; every nonprofit organization, regardless of mission; and every business, regardless of industry, has a role to play in standing up for civil society, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power after an election. We take these things for granted in the United States — but there is no law of politics or physics that guarantees a stable democratic outcome. We the people do that.
Our organizations are part of a vibrant grassroots democracy movement fighting to expand ballot access and create more equitable, healthy options for voting. As detailed in our "Roadblocks and Remedies" report, our movement has successfully won voting reforms in dozens of states. As a result, all but five states are allowing absentee voting without an excuse this fall and all but seven states had early in-person voting.
The story of voting, however, doesn't end when a ballot is cast. It's got to be counted. And we'll be making sure that happens.
Along with other civic organizations, we're working to make sure every vote is counted in this historic election, and to keep polling places safe from the coronavirus and from illegal attempts to intimidate voters. And we have been engaged in coast-to-coast voter education, explaining that this year's final results will probably not be available on Tuesday night. Counting tens of millions of vote-by-mail ballots may take more time than usual. It's more important to get it right than to get it done fast.
We're encouraged that business leaders from organizations including the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of Commerce, the Leadership Now Project and the Civic Alliance have joined the effort to ensure a fair and transparent electoral process. All these groups are urging patience and civility during the time it takes for local and state election officials to count every vote. Players associations from major sports leagues have actively promoted civic engagement and voting too. And it's good to see the Major League Baseball and NFL commissioners have signed the Civic Alliance statement on election integrity.
This common-sense pledge to uphold the integrity of our democracy deserves support from every private sector employer. Business leaders have enormous influence with both political parties. The private sector also gains enormous benefit from the long history of political stability in the United States. This, in turn, creates the stable labor, capital and consumer markets that drive sales, revenue and profits.
As business leaders learned in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, keeping a low profile during periods of social and political controversy is not an option in today's fast-moving, information-hungry environment. Standing together, business and civil society can send a strong message that we won't tolerate any false claims about our elections or any attempt to manipulate results and overturn the will of voters.
It's inspiring to see tens of millions of Americans sending in their mail ballots, standing in line to vote and taking active steps to participate in our democracy. We owe them a free and fair election, with every vote counted and all results respected. That's our mission in the coming days. The more people, organizations and businesses who join us, the greater our voice will be — not only on Election Day but in the crucial days to follow.
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.