I was blessed to be born into a family that taught and modeled conservative values.

My parents and grandparents showed me — not just with their words, but with their deeds — the values of honor, integrity and heeding the wisdom of our ancestors.

My conservative values also lead me to support the For the People Act, the comprehensive voting rights and democracy reform legislation now pending in the Senate after being passed by the Democratic-majority House.

Consider the conservative values of honor and integrity. Many modern politicians lack either one. This is because honor and integrity are not assets, but rather liabilities, in a system that relies on such things as partisan gerrymandering and dark money.

Gerrymandering allows the politicians in power to pick their voters, custom-drawing their own electoral districts so they can coast to reelection year after year, without honoring their commitment to represent all the people they have pledged to represent.

Dark money is the term for the ocean of cash — more than $1 billion during the 2020 campaign — that nonprofit organizations are able to spend on politics without revealing the identities of their donors. Candidates who benefit from dark money have an obvious competitive edge over those not beholden to these special interests.

Given these two advantages, is it any wonder Congress had an average 24% approval rating in the last year but a 90% reelection rate last fall?

The For the People Act (also known as HR 1 and S 1) addresses these issues by turning over the drawing of congressional districts to independent commissions instead of politicians, and by requiring trade associations, unions and other politically active nonprofits to disclose who’s giving them money and what campaigns they are funding, which, incredibly, is not required right now.

When discussing this legislation with my conservative friends and family, the single biggest objection they raise is that the bill would seize power from states and local governments and put it in the hands of a remote and bloated federal government.

This is a valid concern. Its resolution comes from looking through the lens of another conservative value: the wisdom of our ancestors.

States will still run their own elections. The bill sets some basic rules to protect voters and the security of our elections nationwide. History shows this balance is necessary.

The wise James Madison realized that corrupt factions had a much easier time gaining control over a local government than a central government: the phenomenon that caused the collapse of the Greek democracies and the Roman Republic. He believed a strong central government would provide an important check and balance on the worst impulses of local control.

Conservatives should want politicians with honor and integrity, and a government that heeds to the wisdom of our ancestors who wrote the Constitution. The For the People Act takes us in that direction.

Eric Carlson is a high school science teacher in the rural farming town of Royal City, Wash., and a volunteer for RepresentUs, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for a broad array of democracy reforms. He wrote this for the Fulcrum, covering what’s making democracy dysfunctional and efforts to fix our governing systems.