The Outstater

February 25, 2026

We’ve Lost the Founders’ Mindset

SOME OF US have spent decades studying the legislative mind. Most of us have worked through our cynical phase where we assumed it was all selfishness and venal ambition. There are many Indiana legislators sincerely trying to advance measures that they consider important for all of our well-being. It’s just that they aren’t trying hard enough, and only up to a point.

The mindset is that of a lawyer (the officeholder) representing clients (you and me) in court (the Statehouse). We have all heard it. The disclaimer, I mean. It goes something like this: “You don’t understand how it works; I couldn’t get that out of committee,” implying that all that could be done had been done, the appeals have been dutifully filed. Out of his hands. Write the check.

That’s why following this legislative session you get the feeling you are watching a game being played between the 40 yard lines. It’s mostly bookkeeping and legalese with few systemic changes. Rarely do we discuss a policy that has shown promise in a competing state — only tired ideas, nudged this way or that in lunches with Indianapolis lobbyists and other narrow interests with specious arguments. Do the detached minds of leadership seriously contend that casinos and football stadiums are the top issues facing the average Hoosier family in 2026?

What if our legislators had a different mindset, that of a friend and neighbor? The goal first of all would be to give voice to real-life pressing concerns, however a committee might eventually vote or what short-term effect it might have on a political career. Legislators could be a big help in assisting specific policy proposals gain traction in the electorate on the merits rather than waiting for a chairman’s approval.

There’s a model for that. We touch on it in various ways in the foundation’s “Indiana Mandate.” It is one perfected by the generation that won our independence. Rather than depending on political ambition, it embodies humility and resolve. It is evident in correspondence among the colonists, most succinctly in this line written by John Adams: “We can’t guarantee success in this war, but we can do something better. We can deserve it.”

The Pulitzer-prize winning historian David McCullough found numerous examples of this sentiment in the letters of the founding fathers, including a 1775 letter where George Washington echoed the idea that one cannot command success but can deserve it through honorable effort. (McCullough traces the phrasing to Joseph Addison’s 1712 play “Cato,” a favorite among the founders).

Substitute “policy” for “war,” and you’ve got it. Again, a good start would be spending more time in the district working directly for ideas that you favor. We need help out here. The Statehouse can catch up later.

• Show up at council meetings shoulder to shoulder with local activists to ask sharp questions about eco-devo contracts and tax rebates, e.g., corruption.
• Or at a school board meeting to ask why teachers, regardless of subject, are paid the same. 
• Or at a zoning hearing to ask why master plans only loosely reflect actual development and seem to be guided only by the well-connected.
• Or at the controller’s office to ask why the city needs to own golf courses and cemeteries or why 80 percent of the budget goes not for infrastructure but to public-sector collective bargaining units. 

There are hundreds of issues that would be advanced by such proactive participation. Yes, I know, it doesn’t fall within a legislator’s job description. Job descriptions, though, can be changed to fit the challenge before us. — tcl

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