The first step, eight years later
Eight years ago today we launched the Liberatus website and published journal entry #001 with three opening sentences:
How do you make American politics beautiful? Why are we so often stuck with dysfunction, wishing for something better? We say we fight for liberty, that we have been set free — but deep inside we’re caught longing for something better.
In the digital journal, we set out to write our authentic thoughts and offer a new form of political communication as we pursued the vision of healing, first through personal connections and conversations.
It addressed a problem we all saw (broadly, “dysfunction”) and offered a solution we all wanted — to live life as people who’ve been set free. To date, we’ve published 132 (thoughtful) digital journal entries and Volume One, with writings by nineteen writers, fueled in part by 128 donors, with stakeholders representing the full political spectrum across 20 states. You can view names of many of the creators behind Liberatus here.
What I believed at the start of the journey, and still do, is that we have the tools and structure of self-governance in place — but we don’t know how to use them effectively, and we fight each other instead, and at a level of dishonesty and ungroundedness that’s deeper than not being nice.
Still, over the last eight years, my vision has evolved beyond that — and I’ll share part of the journey to get there.
We started with a focus on success, inclusion of others, political communication, workplace excellence, and a new creative ethos. We started as “a creative pursuit of truth and beauty” to reset our affections and our minds.
I think that when we reset our affections and mindsets, our decisions change too.
And when we begin to reset who we are, we are met with resistance, setbacks, lack of funding, apathy, and compulsive emotional responses.
Dysfunction therefore happens when we don’t have a clear sense of purpose and aren’t grounded in the love that God has for us. But when we do have a sense of purpose and stay centered in the love of God, we learn to respond to reality as it unfolds.
And over the last eight years, reality as it’s lived among political professionals is out in the open in new ways. Since we launched eight years ago, we’ve seen dysfunction and division as a choice and as a value play out through a pandemic, through the murder of George Floyd, and on January 6.
Reality is telling us we must organize and respond, but not because of those moments I’ve mentioned here. As a follower of Christ, we do not need to organize out of anxious restlessness and activism — we need to organize because we already have power and we should care deeply that we use it wisely — and we have the freedom to create whatever we want out of love because of the love God has for us.
As I’ve written in The Trailhead, the big answer to that question of how we make politics beautiful is grounded in unity and the three actions that help us choose it. Unity, deeply understood, was what we were after at the beginning. Realizing that we and many others were saying — in various ways — that we live full lives when we include others, stay grounded in wisdom by searching for it, and create new solutions and culture gave me and Liberatus a way to articulate what unity is and means and how we can choose it.
Thinking of unity as a reflection of the nature of God and as an answer to questions about how we relate to others, how we relate to ourselves, and what we will create together feels like a monumental breakthrough. Of course, I’m only restating what’s been said by many others in various contexts before Liberatus. But it’s helpful to articulate what the pattern of unity is, because the pursuit of it is infinite.
Reality has called us to take this pattern and to organize in a new way — but for what? We need to know how to use the tools of self-governance, yes. But we also need to make our country more just as we seek to live as people who are free. When we started, I thought of justice as in courts and legal proceedings with grounded outcomes. But in the same way that freedom is relational, so is justice.
I think that when we start paying attention and see the world through the eyes of our Creator, we see injustice and the need for good leadership. (Thank you to leaders like Yonathan Moya and Bernice King for articulating this so well!)
The solutions we need will come when we collaborate and build trust, and become leaders for American unity, and when we build endurance over the long-haul. Inspiration for American unity means we have a creative structure to become leaders for American unity. Our mission is to create a culture of American unity for the next generation by producing content, experiences, and leaders that inspire it today.
We’re eight years in — and we’re just getting started. The adventure is just beginning, and all Americans get to participate because of the love that God has for us.
In specific, tangible terms, we’re 2.04% of the way to what we hope to create: as we seek to become a biannual publication, offering inspiration for American unity as a stable part of the American mind, we as an organization are building a community of ten thousand readers and we’ll get there by developing and strengthening leaders not only with professional experience in American politics, but also across the country. As of this writing, we’ve shipped or hand-delivered 204 copies of Volume One. As we grow, we’ll continue giving 20% of the funds contributed for each copy of Volume One and Volume Two to our partners, Border Perspective and Refuge Coffee Co. and to others we will partner with in the future.
When we create out of love, we can move from pretentiousness to creative expression. With gratitude for Suzette Brooks-Masters’ work on imagining better futures, I intend to continue our creative journey together because I imagine a future where people of faith speak with honesty and care about the challenges we face. I imagine a future where those who have been displaced are welcomed into communities prepared to welcome.
I imagine a future where workers are paid for the value they create, where leaders serve and empower their teams, and where higher education is a realistic option for those who wish to increase their knowledge and creative abilities.
I imagine a future where collaboration is part of the job description for anyone working in a legislative body, where those workers have the relational skills to follow through on collaboration, and where workplaces value and support human energy so that everyone can reach their full potential.
I imagine a future where rivers are swimmable, where beaches and roads and parking lots are free from trash, and where trees and green spaces thrive in cities regardless of wealth. I imagine a future where we produce enough energy at home to fuel our way of life, where we continue finding breakthrough ways to do so while protecting our environment, and where public land is protected so nature can thrive.
I imagine a future where healthcare costs are specified up front and are affordable. I imagine a future where sports are accessible to everyone, where mothers have the support they need to raise their children, and where men take responsibility for their actions. I imagine a future where we create solutions like clean, private bathrooms for everyone instead of scapegoating people who we don’t understand — and a future where understanding others isn’t scary.
I imagine a future where the persistent effects of racism and slavery have healed in part because of our intentional efforts, where we live as the Beloved Community. I imagine a future where the next generation grows up knowing that we can make our country more just and free — working towards all of the futures listed here — when we collaborate and build trust, and when we organize and speak with a unified but diverse voice.
And for all of us who follow Christ, I imagine a future where we take relentless focused action to make our country stronger as advocates for unity, not out of an anxious need for validation or to save the country, but because of the hope we have because of Christ.
As I wrote eight years ago, together we can shake up our political categories and find a freedom deeper than we have yet imagined. Eight years later, it’s clear that we need to do so to establish justice, too.
Thank you to all my colleagues, friends, and family who’ve participated in the work of Liberatus over the last eight years. Healing the way we do politics and becoming leaders for American unity won’t come easy — but let’s keep going.
We Are Set Free, and
Build Endurance,
Caleb
To read a full refreshed vision overview, click here.
To give to the Build Endurance campaign, click here. And thank you — we can’t do this work well or effectively without you.
You can make a donation to get your copy of Volume One here.
Caleb Paxton is a former Republican congressional staffer and the founder of Liberatus, a nonprofit with a mission to inspire American unity. He has worked and volunteered for right-leaning campaigns and causes in Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He’s also worked at the so-called bottom of the American economy, giving over 1,000 Uber rides and shopping for more than 1,000 grocery delivery customers to cover expenses while running Liberatus — and while running marathon or ultramarathon distances 23 times. If you’d like to fund the mission of Liberatus and the people behind it, you can do so at LiberatusDC.org.
