America is in a free fall, desperately in need of a new direction.
Since the inauguration of Donald J. Trump for a second term as President of the United States, the country and its people have been wandering about as nomads, either clinging to the president’s murky promises or passionately protesting the rise of tyranny.
Last weekend, seven million people gathered to participate in 2,700 “No Kings” rallies across the country. While Republicans denounced the rallies as anti-American and fueled by Antifa supporters, the rallies remained primarily peaceful and cautiously optimistic about America’s future.
Speakers criticized Trump and his supporters, mainly condemning authoritarian policies and calling for a return to democratic values. In a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll, 62% of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
Additionally, Americans have never been more divided in the modern era. A P.R.R.I. survey found a 68-point gap between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the direction of the country. To put that number in perspective, a 31-point gap existed during the Obama presidency.
With most Americans believing the country is headed in the wrong direction and more divided than ever, the question persists: How have leaders responded? Most Republicans (86%) seemed overjoyed about Trump’s second term, affirming their support for so-called conservative leadership. However, what was most striking about the survey was the notion that more than 60% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of both the Republican (61%) and Democratic (65%) parties.
With the government shutdown heading into its fourth week, Democrats seem to have lost their voice in offering an alternative vision for the country. Democratic leadership often criticizes Trump and his policies, but there seems to be no clear, unified vision.
As a Baptist who lived through the Baptist wars and observed decades of struggle between conservatives and moderates/progressives: (1) Conservatives force a vision and unify behind it, and (2) Moderates/Progressives unify behind condemnation but cannot unify behind a clear vision. If America is going to survive this moment of authoritarian influence and policies, there needs to be a progressive vision that unifies people around practical policies that benefit the common good. Therefore, I offer the following as a good starting point.
Leading with Moral and Just Clarity
Defining morality is often in the eye of the beholder, but let’s recommit ourselves to a morality of decency and justice. Americans need to get past the culture wars, replacing that antiquated and divisive strategy with a spirit of decency that begins with a genuine respect for all humans. Being part of the human race means acknowledging our likenesses and differences, while treating each other with dignity and respect.
Dignity and respect can only be achieved through a commitment to justice. Justice at its root means “having a basis in or conforming to fact and reason.”
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Striving for a just society means our systems and institutions must exist to care for everyone’s needs and protect everyone’s rights, regardless of wealth, power, or influence.
Creation Care is the Moral Issue of Our Time
While many in our world prefer to ignore or deny human-induced climate change, the Earth is not waiting around for humans to make up our minds. The climate is changing, and the Earth is fighting back against its perceived enemy, humans.
The New York Times recently reported that 2025 is on track to be the most costly year for weather-related disasters. The nonprofit group Climate Central noted that, for the first six months of this year, weather-related disasters have caused $1 billion in damage. In most cases, the marginalized and poor have suffered the most.
The late Pope Francis responded to a question about climate change by stating, “As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family.” People of faith need to rally behind our responsibility as God’s caretakers of the Garden by demanding that America return to the Paris Agreement, which legally binds countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
Healthcare is a Human Right
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 25.3 million U.S. citizens aged 0 to 64 were uninsured in 2023. While that number remained steady compared to previous years, the number of uninsured children increased from 3.8 million in 2022 to 4 million in 2023.
Despite the Affordable Health Care Act, millions of Americans remain uninsured or suffering under crippling medical debt. A Peterson-Kaiser report found, “Despite over 90% of the United States population having some form of health insurance, medical debt remains a persistent problem.”
The report indicated 20 million people (nearly 1 in 12 adults) owe medical debt. The report concluded: “People in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over $1,000 in medical debt, and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000. While medical debt occurs across demographic groups, people with disabilities or in worse health, lower-income people, and uninsured people are more likely to have medical debt.”
The time has long passed for collective recognition that healthcare is a human right; therefore, America needs to move towards a universal healthcare system. Thwarting death should never depend on the size of your bank account or address.
As other developed countries move toward universal healthcare for their citizens, America has fallen behind in caring for its people. It’s time to introduce a single-payer system that expands Medicare for all people.
Commit to a War on Poverty, While Empowering the Middle Class
While America moves towards healthcare as a human right, let’s declare a war on poverty at the same time. In 2024, 10.6% of the U.S. population (35.9 million people) lived in poverty.
According to the non-profit group Feeding America, a family of four living in the U.S. making less than $30,000 annually is considered low-income.
People of color are more likely to live in poverty, while individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions are prone to low income and hunger. Poverty leads to food insecurity, poor health, and barriers to education, which stifles upward mobility.
Committing to a war on poverty is reasonable and doable within the wealthiest nation on the planet. Simple steps such as expanding SNAP for millions of Americans facing food insecurity, creating opportunities for job training, workforce development, and underrepresented entrepreneurs, investing additional funding in public education and technology centers, and establishing a tax system that forces the wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share of taxes and cease penalizing those living in poverty and the middle class.
Rejecting Unrestrained Capitalism
To declare a war on poverty, America needs to rein in corporate greed and extravagance. Deregulation of corporations has only benefited multinational businesses and the billionaires and millionaires who run them. In contrast, everyday citizens continue to struggle from paycheck to paycheck.
In his letter to his young protege, Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote (First Timothy 6:9-10): “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”
Unrestrained or unfettered capitalism is not a biblical idea, no matter what right-wing evangelicals argue. It is not a sin to make money, but it is a sin to make money at the expense of other people’s dignity and economic decline.
America needs a new financial system that benefits everyone. We need to incentivize investments in underrepresented communities that deliver tangible results and upward mobility for people.
We need a tax system that caps wealth (we do not need more oligarchs manipulating the social and economic fabric of our society), while taxing the lower and middle classes in a just manner that promotes societal contribution and economic opportunity. Greed can no longer be the driving force behind our financial systems. Instead, innovation and the common good need to be our greatest commodities in this new system. We need a new system that encourages and rewards creativity and hard work, while making certain billionaires pay their fair share of taxes.
Celebrating Diversity
The United States of America is a country built by immigrants. Additionally, North America was first populated by Indigenous peoples across the land.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific, Indigenous communities created complex and detailed systems before the European invasion. Therefore, with these two truths, America needs to cease the anti-diversity rhetoric and recognize the strength of the diversity that makes up this country.
The great Maya Angelou wrote, “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” America’s diversity makes us stronger, while conforming restrains creativity and innovation. When the demand to conform overpowers individuals and communities, then individual and societal freedom ceases to exist.
In its place will rest a conquered people forced to conform and assimilate. Americans will no longer have freedom, but conformity and loyalty to tyrants.
In place of loyalty, conformity, and assimilation, we need policies that celebrate diversity and incentivize organizations, companies, and universities that practice honoring diversity. America is beautiful because of all the differences that make us unique. When those differences are stifled, then we become as dull as white paint on a wall.
Ensuring Inclusivity
America needs more people participating in the democratic experience of self-governance. More and more, America is returning to the time when wealthy white male landowners called the shots.
The rest of us were held at bay, prohibited from owning land, voting, and having rights. Only a select few were allowed to make decisions that affected the whole. We are nearing a repeat of that time.
With that said, we still have time to take this in the right direction and ensure more and more citizens are included in the American experiment.
First, we need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that would legally enshrine voting rights for all citizens. Second, we need to outlaw gerrymandering by both parties. Third, we need to overturn Americans United and turn campaigns into a publicly funded system. Fourth, dissolve the Electoral College.
The Electoral College was created to benefit slave-holding states to ensure their ability to maintain an overrepresented minority influence over the federal government.
Fully Supporting and Funding Public Education
The future of America depends on a fully funded public education system. The enemy of any tyrant is an educated citizenry.
The reason many attack public and higher education is that indoctrination quells curiosity and intensifies assimilation. When curiosity and questions are discouraged, assimilation forces blind loyalty.
Neil Postman wrote: “Public education does not serve a public. It creates a public. And in creating the right kind of public, the schools contribute toward strengthening the spiritual basis of the American Creed.”
Exactly. Public and higher education help create an informed society that fuels innovation and creativity, enabling people to dream of a better tomorrow.
When policies are enacted that harm education, society either becomes stuck at best or regresses at worst. Public education and higher education need to be held accountable, but only to the extent of ensuring that every American has the opportunity to be educated. America will only be as strong as its public schools are strong.
Recommitting to Religious Liberty and Church-State Separation
A dangerous ideology continues to infiltrate our culture and institutions. Christian fundamentalists seek to impose their beliefs on every fabric of our society. While identifying as Christian nationalists, an even darker theology believes that only Christian fundamentalists are worthy to lead in every area of society.
Known as the Seven Mountains Mandate, Christian Fundamentalists believe God ordained them to have dominion over (1) Education, (2) Government, (3) Religion, (4) Family, (5) Business, (6) Media, and (7) Entertainment. These “dominionists” are having success at all levels, imposing their beliefs and practices on the whole.
Therefore, Americans need to return to the traditional idea of religious liberty, which means citizens have the right to practice their religion as their conscience dictates, as long as that practice does not infringe upon the rights of other citizens. The best way for this to happen is through the time-honored separation of church and state. America was founded on this principle, thus ensuring freedom for and from religion.
In conclusion, this vision is only a starting point. There are many citizens with imaginative and creative ideas for making this country a more perfect union. America needs a progressive vision—a path forward toward inclusion, freedom, and justice for all our citizens.
America has never been, nor are we now, a perfect union, but that reality should never prevent us from ensuring a brighter future for all Americans. Both potential and opportunity stand before us, but it’s up to us to boldly step forward in faith and resilience, countering the rising tide of authoritarianism and dreaming of a better tomorrow for everyone.
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CEO of Good Faith Media.
