Caleb Paxton
Choose What's Hard

To conclude this series exploring quotes that make up the foundational ethos of the mission, I want to highlight two, bringing the last two journal entries in this series into one.

Choose What's Hard
Caleb Paxton
Never Lose A Passenger

Speaking of her time leading the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman said this:

“I never ran my train off the tracks and I never lost a passenger.”

What’s inspiring to me about this statement is that Harriet’s leadership included politics, civil rights, forward progress, the human experience as it should be, severe personal trauma, contemplative faith, leading teams—and physical endurance.

Never Lose A Passenger
Caleb Paxton
Define Freedom

I started Liberatus in 2015 partly because it’s ambiguous what exactly we were fighting for in Congress. While we said we were fighting for freedom, in the words of former Congressman Raul Labrador, Capitol Hill “is a place that just sucks your soul.” But why?

Define Freedom
Caleb Paxton
Differ On Preference

“He’s a principled conservative.”

After working within the conservative movement, it’s not clear to me what this statement means.

But I think it means something like this: There’s a conservative view of things that is the truth, therefore, he stands on that truth no matter the costs, achieves top marks on legislative scorecards, and those who don’t hold to principles might be nice to people but they’ll never be champions.

Differ On Preference
Caleb Paxton
Restrain Partisanship

Today, often the farthest we go with this advice is to say that we should “turn down the heat” when things get too ugly. But to govern the country well, we need constructive parameters for what it means to restrain partisanship, in the same way that Olympic athletes have constructive parameters for how to perform at their best, follow the rules of their sport, and uphold sportsmanship.

Restrain Partisanship

What It Means To Build Endurance

What It Means To Build Endurance

Part Nine: Endurance is the defining characteristic of Liberatus culture. For this journal entry in Issue 019: The Trailhead—Leadership for American Unity I want to articulate what it means to build endurance, what dysfunction looks like, and how we can create a culture of unity by moving the mission forward.

While we need leaders who embody the build endurance ethos, it’s important to note that anyone can build endurance, and in this journal entry I’ll lay out how so that we can continue creating a culture of American unity for the next generation.

The Plan for American Unity

The Plan for American Unity

Part Eight: A summary of the Liberatus plan for American unity, as articulated so far in this journal series. The actions to choose unity listed here with their corresponding sub points are actions we can all take wherever we are, in any context. When Americans choose unity, we make our country stronger—more just and more free—for our kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews.

Liberatus offers inspiration for American unity to help you choose unity. You can read more about our plan for healing or unity in The Values of Freedom and Philosophy of Freedom in Political Engagement.

Why Create A Culture of Unity

Why Create A Culture of Unity

Part Seven: Ten reasons why we do the work to create a culture of American unity.

As President Kennedy said about going to the moon, we choose to create a culture of American unity through a biannaul illustrated journal not because it is easy but because it is hard. Also included on the list: If we’re going to ask our military to defend us abroad, we have to create a culture, not just a democratic structure, worth defending at home, for the US and the world.

Movement From Disunity to Unity

Movement From Disunity to Unity

Part Six: Here are fourteen examples of what movement from a culture of disunity to a culture of unity could look like.

For reference, here’s also a list of ten effects of a culture of disunity.

The list includes a loss of respect from other countries who should see the citizens of the United States model human freedom.

Principles for American Unity

Principles for American Unity

Part Five: These are the principles we hold as we move the mission to inspire American unity forward.

Mission: To create a culture of American unity for the next generation by producing content, experiences, and leaders that inspire it today. Our goal is to publish a high-quality, biannual illustrated journal and give 20% of the funds received for copies ordered on the Liberatus website to partner organizations* creating a culture of American unity across the United States.

Reunited And It Feels So Good

Reunited And It Feels So Good

Part Four: Remarks on unity as prepared for delivery by Marcie Lynch Assetta

Let’s all resolve to be a part of the solution moving forward, and not a part of the problem. Division is a choice. Exclusion is a choice. Inclusion is a choice and it’s my prayer that we can enter into self-reflection, become better listeners, find common ground and move forward in a positive and healthy manner for the good of all Pennsylvanians.

Create! Redefine Your Win

Create! Redefine Your Win

Part Three: If leadership for American unity is the purpose of political activity, what does it mean to win? If followers of Jesus are politically involved for the sake of unity and motivated by the call to love others as Christ loved us, how do they define winning? If we aren’t called by God to control policy—a logical impossibility—then what are we called to create once we are inclusive and grounded in wisdom, and how do we define success? Here are seven ways we can redefine winning.

Stay Grounded In Wisdom: Preferences Are Not Principles

Stay Grounded In Wisdom: Preferences Are Not Principles

Part Two: Because policy debates in the United States in the context of upholding the Constitution all seek to answer the same basic question of how to balance liberty and safety, it’s critical that we recognize that where we land on the spectrum is merely a representation of our preferences, not our principles.

Principles are universal. They exist regardless of whether we claim them as our own.

Be Inclusive: Unity Is Not Sentimental

Be Inclusive: Unity Is Not Sentimental

Part One: “We live in two Americas,” LeBron James said at a news conference on January 7, 2021. “And a prime example of that was yesterday.”

Reading the differing narratives about American history as told by Hillsdale College and the 1619 Project makes his point a difficult one to argue against.

And it’s those same divergent narratives to which Abraham Lincoln referred in 1864.

Your Colleagues and Your Parents

Your Colleagues and Your Parents

The peace of Christ begins on a personal level. And so our approach to building a grassroots support network will, similarly, be on a relational level as well. Political healing is not something that needs to happen “out there.” It can only begin when we begin to drop our illusions of what we think America is or could be, and accept the call to love our neighbor as ourselves.