While the general mission hasn’t changed much since the Constitutional Convention of 1787, what that mission means in practice certainly has changed. For example, securing the right to life implies a duty to protect from harm - but only to the extent that is doable given current resources and capabilities, which change over time. It would have made little sense in the early 1800s for the federal government to mandate and subsidize universal access to healthcare services when such services were rather risky propositions and the government was near-broke. Today’s a different story. The medical field has evolved and the resources are there. We could have an affordable universal healthcare system in the US. All we need is the political will and a way to do it responsibly.

There’s that word again: responsibly. What does that mean? …

Political centrists favor a flexible, pragmatic and non-ideological approach to government policy. They tend to occupy the middle-ground of political opinion but are rarely attached to particular policies. This is not because centrists lack conviction or ideas but because they appreciate the utter difficulty of predicting policy effects over time. Like scientists, centrists appreciate their own limitations and the need to keep an open mind.

Policies and laws are very complex: drafting them requires a degree of expertise. Lobbyists are invaluable to legislators because they provide a lot of useful technical information - and yes, sometimes they play a major role in writing the legislation (whether they're lobbyists for the Teamsters or the Mining and Extraction Industry Council). The issue is not to eliminate their input but to make sure other perspectives and data are also considered.