The Kobat Corner: A New Column, If You Can Keep It

September 17th, 1787—Elizabeth Willing Powel, a prominent socialite, stood outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia as the members of the Constitutional Convention filed out. She asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?"

Franklin, without missing a beat, famously replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

When I first spoke to Steve about writing this column, I asked myself a reasonable question: What could I contribute that would make it worth your time?

Wait. Why are you writing this?

Professionally, I’m a research leader, testing assumptions and helping global executives make better decisions. My economics background also makes me curious about incentives and costs that are easy to overlook. I want to bring those habits to the place I call home.

My name is Lucas Kobat. I moved to Watertown in 2010 before my freshman year of high school, then graduated from USD. Jackrabbits beware! I left South Dakota to start my career and intentionally returned with my wife, Tiffany, to raise our family here. Today, we have four children.

Our family, like yours, will help shape this community’s future and also live with the consequences.

Through this column, I aim to offer ideas you’ll bring to public forums, business meetings, and, most importantly, kitchen table conversations. We’ll examine local, national, and global issues through their consequences on everyday life in Watertown.

The question I’ll continue to ask is simple, but not easy: What choices help our families build good lives here, and what are we accepting that makes it harder?

Consider a better-paying job. More income might mean paying off debt, replacing a lemon car, or finally saving. It might also require more hours that make dinner with the children rare. Sometimes those tradeoffs are worth it. But the paycheck can’t tell us that on its own. We have to know what we want our work and home lives to stand for.

It’d be easy to say families should simply choose more time together. Some parents already work every available hour to cover necessities. Advice which ignores that reality is worth very little.

We must understand the constraints of meaningful choices. We can then examine money, time, obligations, and opportunities together. That’s the judgment I want readers to recognize. 

You should also know the convictions behind my judgments.

So, who are you…really?

I’m a child of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. That faith shapes how I understand truth, human dignity, and responsibility. I believe every person is someone God created and Christ died for. Their worth cannot be measured by their productivity, income, or usefulness.  

That conviction shapes how I think about everything else. 

Take economics as an example. Most people think dollars and cents. However, the word “economy” traces back to the Greek oikonomia, meaning household management. Managing resources well requires thinking beyond the bottom line. 

For me, that begins at home. Marriage and parenting involve promises that have to survive inconvenience. How we spend our money and use our time teaches our children what matters most. 

That work requires freedom: to worship, speak, build, own, and make meaningful choices about our lives. I believe that freedom belongs to people whose choices differ from mine, too. Exercising it well requires judgment and accountability for how our decisions affect others.

It also requires stewardship. Time, money, talent, and authority deserve careful use. Every commitment leaves something else undone. Something we can afford today may carry obligations our children will inherit.

These responsibilities extend into the community we shape together. A household budget needs a purpose. So does a city budget. In both, we should be able to explain how our choices help people build good lives.

Which leads to a version of our core question here: Before we ask whether something is even possible, have we asked whether it’s good?

The Bottom Line

Franklin’s answer placed a responsibility on the people receiving the early republic. Its future would depend on what they did with it.

We carry responsibilities too. The families, businesses, churches, and neighborhoods that make Watertown home require people willing to care for them. Keeping a community strong means figuring out what to keep, what to change, and what we as individuals must do about each.

This column is my contribution to that work. The standards I ask others to meet must apply to me as well. 

I want my children to have good reasons to build lives here someday, and the freedom to choose their own paths. Helping make that possible is a responsibility we carry through the ordinary, long before they become someone else’s inheritance.

So here’s to a new column, if I can keep it. And to a good community, if we can keep it. Let’s begin!

Invitation to Connect: Did this column spark a thought, question, or critique? I want to hear it! Send your inquiry to thekobatcorner@gmail.com