Originally published at crisis magazine
Many Catholics are rightfully excited about Donald Trump’s victory, but do not allow Trump’s victory to become an excuse for complacency. Trump’s win is not evidence of the American people’s repentance or virtue. And even if Trump does everything right during his second term, he can only do so much. Not every decision gets made in Washington. Decisions made in your state capital and city hall have a far greater impact on your day-to-day life. And that’s a good thing!
The Catholic Church teaches us that, whenever possible, matters should be handled by the smallest, lowest, or least-centralized competent authority rather than by a higher and more distant one—the principle of subsidiarity. In your grade school civics class, you might have heard that referred to as Federalism. Since there were only a few Catholic founders, the decision to organize our country this way was likely done less out of obedience to Holy Mother Church than out of the recognition of subsidiarity’s natural benefits.
In a country as large and diverse as ours, subsidiarity is necessary for us to be able to live in peace with one another. So, we should be expending more of our energy on local, rather than
