Republicans and Democrats could hardly have more starkly different ideas for family policy. Take care and education: the Republicans’ Project 2025 would zero out Head Start, costing over 750,000 low-income children and families their childcare and wraparound support, and move toward a deeply privatized version of public education modeled after the now-cautionary tale in Arizona. Meanwhile, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has suggested that she wants to finish implementing the Biden administration’s care and education policies, which include enormous infusions of funds to build out an affordable childcare system and shore up public schools.

Yet in a deeper sense, both parties are missing the point. Public policy on its own does not resonate with individuals’ sense of identity or place in society. There is little question that many Americans today are craving meaning but not finding it: trust in neighbors and the government is down, while loneliness and despair are sky-high. What is the good life to which we should aspire, what is the role of family in that vision, and how do the proposals on offer bring us closer to that promised land? Without that call to values, policies — even those that make a meaningfully positive difference in people’s lives — ring hollow.

Family policy questions must therefore be put forth in a larger context, but this happens too rarely. Take childcare. Republicans like Ron Johnson and Kristi Noem express doubt the government has any role to play in helping parents find and afford quality childcare. In contrast, Democrats frame their childcare proposals in narrow terms that focus mainly on licensed programs and almost exclusively on economic impacts; commerce secretary Gina Raimondo has gone so far as to assert that “anyone who thinks child care is social policy is deeply misguided and doesn’t know how to run a business.”