I’m filing this column on the Monday before the election.  Some of you will be reading it before the votes are tallied, while many of you will see it in publications that run after we know – hopefully fairly quickly – who won the race for President of the United States, as well as control of Congress.  

I don’t yet have the benefit of that knowledge to share with you. I’ll move on to focus on what needs to happen regardless of who wins or has won.  

There’s a lot of talk about the need for “unity” in our country. Most of us agree that we need to come together as a country. The hyper-partisans that control much of the narrative and too much of the agenda only want this unity where they get everything they want and the losing side capitulates.  

That isn’t unity.  That’s the operating stance of a conquering force.

Americans will not be conquered. Not from the left. Not from the right.

We are a free people.  We yearn to live freely. 

The reality of this election, like yet amplified louder than those before it, is that both parties have painted the other as authoritarians who want to take our freedoms away.  There’s an uncomfortable amount of truth to the claims of each side.  

We would not have the fear and anxiety over the outcome of this election if our government – at all levels – had not grown so powerful as to interfere with if not outright control too many aspects of our daily life. We’re far removed from the original vision of self-governance laid out by the Founding Fathers. 

This didn’t happen overnight.  Gradually over centuries we as a people have traded the illusion of security and prosperity for their own personal freedom and responsibility.

For us to restore government to its proper limited roles and constitutional functions, we first have to accept that will require a lot more of us taking responsibility of our own lives and the outcomes of our own choices.  

It was interesting to hear Vice President Nominee Tim Walz suggest we need to “mind our own business” at one point in the campaign.  Many of us would like to do just that, without asking the government’s permission nor approval first.

At the same time, we have those who say they want to eliminate all government handouts, but then angrily demand “keep your government hands off my Medicare” – a government run and subsidized federal program.

Even with these two competing visions, there should be room for unity.  We can unite around the fact that both parties believe the other given the power government currently wields is too great to live under if our party loses.

This should be the primary focus of the next Congress.  The Executive Branch has grown too large and is largely unaccountable.  Bit by bit, Congress needs to use its power of the purse and that of specific legislation to specifically reign in the powers given to one person who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This would, however, mean Congress itself would have to take responsibility for the jobs our Senators and Representatives have been elected to do.  Instead of representing we the people, they fund the government with omnibus bills, and they pass laws that leave the details to bureaucrats in rule making processes.

The rules the bureaucrats make only go one way – and that direction is more centralized power in the executive branch.  Congress should immediately change this process, both requiring rules made to be passed by Congress before taking effect as law, as well as sunsetting all current rules not yet codified by Congressional vote.  

We need to know the names of the people who write the laws we free people live under. They should never be faceless bureaucrats whose mission seems to be to increase their own fiefdoms at the expense of the American people.  

We know the government is too big and too powerful when too many people are afraid to live under the rule of a party they didn’t vote for.  On this, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can agree.

Whomever controls the next Congress should immediately work to get bipartisan consensus on where to begin reasserting Congress’ role both as a check and balance, as well as that of the branch that is to make law.

This path would only begin to demonstrate unity within the country.  It would have the added benefit of making Americans understand and possibly even respect Congress as an institution once again.