What will our country look like in 2028?
I believe that neighbors should care for neighbors. Government’s role and responsibility to protect its citizens so that citizens can carry out the work of helping others: something each of us does with our families, for instance. Government is responsible to maintain landowners’ opportunity to care for their property: we do this with our homes. Government is responsible to provide space for entrepreneurs to be creative and produce health-care goods, something The Constitution provides for in protecting copyright (Art 1, Sec 8, Clause). Government is responsible to provide safety for its people so that we can have constructive, even contentious, arguments about life’s issues. And remember, when we say, “government funding,” the government has no money; all “funding” is accomplished by U.S. citizens paying their taxes.
Americans may differ on the role of government. But we do not, for the most part, differ on responsibility to neighbor. I believe that’s where we begin, with what we agree on. I believe that agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and “nones” can work together; I believe this because of the theological principle called “common grace” given to all people. I bear responsibility to live graciously, in common, doing good on behalf of my neighbor. For my part, whether it be a cultural or economic issue, I am a conservative political pluralist. Scripture is clear about beneficent conservation and careful management of what has been given to me. Without apology, my desire is to conserve-preserve the great ideas and ideals handed down to us. When it comes to government and neighbor, applying the preservation principle means abiding by the Constitution’s original intention, most famously summarized by the first three words, “We the people.”
“Serving the public interest” means that it’s government’s role to create boundaries of law that benefit all American people. [It’s one of the reasons why I support a Constitutional amendment that says politicians must abide by all the laws they create.] Government’s role is not a top-down, fiat-driven, “I’m going to tell you how to run your personal life” (as I would argue, is often the case in American life today). Government’s role is limited in the Constitution. [Notice the clarity of division between the three branches of government in the first three articles of the Constitution, for instance.] Elected leaders’ responsibility is to protect U.S. citizens, no matter ethnicity, status, socio-economic situation, identity, or belief. This approach, I believe, allows the greatest freedom for you and me, allowing us both to be responsible in life for family, neighbor, city, workplace, and country. Freedom is key. Government’s job is not to restrict freedom; government’s job is to enable and protect freedom.
We have a unique opportunity in American politics to evaluate the two major candidate’s views of government in the 2024 U.S. election. We can compare the differences between the administrations of 2016-20 and 2020-24. By their own admission, what will we see from either candidate will be a replication of the policies we saw in their administrations. All a voter need do is cut through the reinterpretations of pundits and politicians to compare actual economic and social results between the two, four-year periods. Every American citizen voting in this election needs to be honest about Ronald Reagan’s famous question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” to either administrative tenure. I believe we must ask the question, “What do we want our country to look like in 2028?”
I have added content to a similar social media post from 8 October 2020. I am driven by biblical witness and preservation of the American freedoms given to me.
Dr. Mark Eckel is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, at Liberty University. My views are my own.