This midterm election season has undoubtedly filled the social media feeds on your devices, the billboards lining your highways, and the spam calls bombarding your phones. The comments from candidates have left you scratching your head, while only occasionally demonstrating a glimmer of prudence.

Christians can remember that on Tuesday there is something more at play than ending the season of campaign posters and spam texts. We can take a step back and remember — what is the goal of government? There are three notable perspectives to this question.

One influential political perspective is that of the progressive movement today. The government’s goal, in the mind of today’s progressive, is to be the arbiter of the economic, social, and political needs in society. The Washington Stand has covered the rise and influence of this ideology.

Progressives have a high view of human nature and focus on imbalances of power and economy. Their ideology holds that the main economic ill is income inequality, and it is the goal of the government to solve it. For example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has iconically quipped that “You can’t earn a billion dollars.” She teaches that government’s goal is to fix economic insecurity and income inequality. Progressives see government as necessary and effective means of economic supervision necessary to maintain perfect income equality.

The Democratic Socialists of America articulate a similar vision in their constitution. They teach that government, not individuals, should control economic, social, and political life. In summary, the goal of progressive government is to correct inappropriate power dynamics with a government that has an active role in economic, social, and political life.

Another perspective on the goal of government is that of the American Founders. The American Founders believed that government was to secure natural rights. They laid out their principles in the Declaration of Independence by articulating that men are “endowed by their Creator” with natural rights. The Founders began with an understanding that humans have a nature. This nature means that they have rights, but also that they are fallible. Because humans are fallible, they need security in their rights, and that is what governments provide. They continue, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The Declaration proposes that a government should be established that is “most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” The Founders taught that a government’s focus was to secure rights so that people can live a good life.

It was also crucial for the Founders that the governed people give their consent. In the Founding era, the Constitution was created, not by the House or Senate, but by a group of delegates from each state who represented “We the People.” Consent is the logical step from believing that government’s main job is to protect the rights that individuals possess. From the Founders’ perspective, this is what voting is on Tuesday: consenting to the government that will be crucial in securing the rights that are essential to human nature.

Finally, the Christian worldview holds an understanding of government’s goal. Christians trust that the goal of government is to be a picture of God’s justice here on earth, as God ordains. There are significant similarities between the Founders’ view and the Christian worldview. Both the Founders and Christians acknowledge that men are created by God, are fallible, and possess natural rights. Christians can take these principles a step further by including biblical grounds for their understanding of government.

For Christians, it is of chief importance that God is over government. Government is made by God for an important, yet temporal role in society (Romans 13:1). God is the final and ultimate lawgiver, judge, and administrator.

Furthermore, Christians believe that humans are created by God and, since the fall, are by nature sinful (Genesis 3, Romans 3:23). Government is the means God has ordained to maintain justice in a fallen world. Government is a picture of God’s order and justice to a sinful world. Christians know that it is God’s blessing when governments make good judgments (2 Samuel 23:3-4). The goal of government is to maintain justice and order for a people made by God and for the glory of God.

Let the proper goal of government inform your vote on Tuesday, no matter who is on your ballot.

Elizabeth Arnold is a contributor to The Washington Stand.