The ethos my grandparents lived
Why the mission to inspire American unity still matters, and what it means to build endurance
Politics is and always will be about people. Self-governing a country is about who we are as a people, how we relate to each other, and what we wish to create together. How we organize politically is as critical as the legislative process, because the way we govern reflects and is controlled by how we organize. What we do — or don’t do — to guide our country is a use of power, and it’s up to us to use our power wisely to create culture so that the next generation is better off than we are today.
My perspective is based in professional work in politics in the conservative movement and four years working in Congress for a member of the House. Going back to George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, I’ve been on the ground and active for right-leaning election campaigns and causes in Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania (in that order).
I’ve often said that September 11th influenced my decision to study politics because it was clear that day and the days following that leadership matters. And while I once believed that my first political memory was a rally for George H. W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 1988, I’m confident now that it was in fact the first time I entered my grandparents’ home on South Nixon Avenue in Lima, Ohio — as I wrote in Liberatus Volume One. It was there that I learned on a very intuitive level what it means to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. My grandparents were heavily involved in the community, from hosting the church picnic to organizing Church People for Change and Reconciliation, to work for the mayor and my grandpa’s campaign for country treasurer, and in other areas that I am learning about more as an adult.
By the summer of 2008, I had graduated from college and volunteered as a campus chair for John McCain’s presidential campaign. I had started my first job as a field rep for The Leadership Institute. I got the call with the offer for that job while I was at my grandparents’ house in 2007. I’ll never forget the way my grandpa responded once I had business cards and gave him one. He saved it and kept it on his dresser, and I’ve never seen anyone prouder of what I was doing in my life.
Once when I was at their house in the summer of 2008, an ad aired for John McCain’s campaign skewering Barack Obama for high gas prices, and my grandpa retorted, “yeah, and it’s all Obama’s fault.” He could of course see through the BS that — while out on the trail for various campaigns — a campaign worker must believe and repeat over and over. If we say it often enough, eventually people start to believe it. And what we believe and then organize around is what our government reflects.
My grandpa passed away eight years ago this week. At the time in 2015 I was considering making the leap to quit my job on the Hill and start Liberatus, which began as a creative outlet or journal for professionals in American politics to write about healing. If as professionals we can be honest about the work we are doing and invite Americans into the conversation, driven by deeply shared values that fit the times, we will have created a beautiful, new way to self-govern.
And I knew from the way that my grandma and grandpa lived their lives that it’s possible to relate to the world differently than what I experienced working in American politics. It’s possible for relationships to be reciprocal and life-giving; it’s possible to include those who are marginalized, and it’s possible to live a life creatively engaged in a community or country for the purpose of making it stronger. My grandfather would often say that if we make sure people have jobs and a decent place to live, they wouldn’t make the desperate decisions they make that harm them and all of us.
These last eight years, Liberatus has been my best attempt to recreate and live the same ethos that they lived. Liberatus has evolved to some degree over the last eight years, but the work still matters because it is in a very basic way the essence of self-governing. There are many more brands working to heal America’s divides now than there were in 2015, and that’s a good thing, because there are many Americans and there’s not one right way to go about this. But healing our country’s divides — making our country more just and free — will always include deeply held values, conversation, and creative purpose, and Liberatus offers a way to organize and use our power wisely.
It’s up to us whether we organize or don’t, and while it’s up to all of us to decide how we will participate in our communities, I think it makes a lot of sense to do so beautifully and creatively with faith values, and that’s what Liberatus and the mission to inspire American unity offers.
I think the biggest lesson from both my grandparents and my work in politics is this: we make our country more just and free and govern wisely when we collaborate and build trust — and when we don’t, we all lose, but especially the poor and those who are marginalized.
Moving the mission forward will require a build endurance mindset, which has always defined the Liberatus ethos too. It means getting involved, taking action, including others, and moving forward regardless of resources or how good it feels, because when we choose to take on hard challenges, we find a new level of creative purpose, and we shift our own inner paradigm from one where we want to take it easy to one where we want to make the world around us a better place. It’s a very different way of relating to life. And life on the other side of that mental shift is good and meaningful.
A build endurance mindset probably should begin with a clear sense of purpose. It’s critical to me to include people in the mission of Liberatus, but everyone involved, especially followers of Christ, should have their own clear answer for why they are involved, and what their purpose in life is. And purpose doesn’t necessarily mean some grand extravagant plan: it’s not a crime to be broke but still working hard to be a good human. There are days when moving Liberatus forward looks like grocery shopping for Instacart customers, sniffing candles in a Kroger to help them pick out a replacement and to make their day — just to make enough money to pay for my own groceries. It’s not a crime to be broke, and it’s not weird to work hard to create meaningful culture — we were after all created to reflect our Creator.
From a faith standpoint, it should be said that the purpose of political activity is the flourishing of the community that we live in while our hope is in the kingdom of God — it’s not about restless activism or misplaced hope. When we have our hope in the kingdom of God, we are free to engage and work hard for the purpose of restoration wherever we are called — and that also means that apathy and indifference are not acceptable for people of faith. As Christians, we simply cannot be apathetic about the restoration of all things.
The mission to inspire American unity and the build endurance ethos have meant specific life choices over the last eight years. While I’m grateful for everyone who has contributed and participated and donated, keeping Liberatus running has meant living in nine locations in eight years, and doing whatever it takes to stay alive. It’s meant giving 1,141 rides on Uber and grocery shopping for 1,005 Instacart customers (and counting) to pay for food and rent. It has included waking up in a hospital after being run over by a horse without knowing what had happened and finishing Volume One on time despite recovering from a brain injury. It has meant seeing my bank account drop to $5 or being charged fees for the balance being too low (I’m not kidding).
And yes, it has meant creating an ultramarathon and trailfest as the annual donor event, so that we can live and celebrate the build endurance ethos that makes the mission to inspire American unity possible.
To give this post a final point of action, I’ve written and my brother David has designed a refreshed vision overview for Liberatus and I’d be thrilled if you take a look at it. Once you know what’s yours to do, come be part of the mission by funding our work or becoming a leader on the team. For context, we have a projected income for the year of $2,100. Reaching even $2,000 in monthly recurring donations from committed donors in the Founders’ Circle would completely change what’s possible to do as I build our team of leaders, produce content, and create community around it. Considering that we’ve never been in a stable financial position as an organization, the results we’ve all produced are remarkable, and we can build on that and achieve the goal of biannual publication — which means developing and strengthening more leaders for American unity — when we have support. For the time being though, I’m writing for 30 minutes in the morning and otherwise out giving five star service to Instacart customers.
When my grandparents passed away, they had “we tried to make a difference” engraved on their tombstone. To everyone who knew them, they did.
I believe that good leadership matters because I saw how good good leadership can be from them. The mission to inspire American unity still matters — and the ways we can use our power wisely to make our country more just and more free as a result still matter — because it’s a life of creative action, rooted in the love that God has for us, that matters.
It matters because when we pick up where they left off, their work matters more too.
