John Thomas is an educator, a church elder, and the Libertarian candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, running alongside gubernatorial candidate Ken Krawchuk. A man who has spent his life inside both the church and the liberty movement, he is exactly the voice this week's history called for.

We measure every president two ways — economic freedom and civil liberty — and a president has to move the country toward freedom on both to make the list. That single rule reshapes everything, and it is why the most famous "small government" names are not always where you expect. The question underneath all of it: did this leave Americans more free, or more governed?