politics of service

It would not be shocking to know that I'm thrilled that Obama won; my friends know me as a big Democrat (figuratively, but also literally, as I'm a 6'6" 290 lb. guy), and my very liberal politics bleeds into my writing. But what might shock some of my friends (and probably none of you, given the topics of my recent posts) is the reason I'm happy he won. It's not just that Obama is the first Democrat to win the presidency since my political awakening; it's not just that he's the first black president (sorry Bill); and it's not just that he is a Millennial-friendly president. For me, the excitement is rooted in his views on the relationship between Americans and their government.

On Thursday Peter Levine wrote a blog post about this relationship in the context of other presidents' views.

Obama's core idea is that citizens are at the center of politics. Not private individuals, not the government, not politicians, but people working together in public, on public matters. Campaigning in New Hampshire in 2006, he said, "There's a wonderful saying by Justice Louis Brandeis once, that the most important office in a democracy is the office of citizen. ... All of us have a stake in this government, all of us have responsibilities, all of us have to step up to the plate."

Obama broke away from the helping model that still guided Hilary (sic) Clinton and from the privatism that was the main theme of modern conservatism. On the campaign trail, he modeled his new conception in two important ways--by making his campaign maximally participatory (pushing power out to the network) and by lowering the partisan temperature a notch. He is a Democrat and he was willing to debate and compete with Republicans. But he never seemed to relish this difference. The reason is that citizens are both liberal and conservative, and they need to work together to solve any serious problems. Competition is appropriate in a campaign, but campaigning is a role for politicians, and they are not the heart of politics.

Obama believes the epicenter of American politics is the people, Levine notes. And Obama's campaign certainly reflected this belief. Obama had the largest grassroots operation in history, and created my.barackobama.com, the internet-based propellant for the movement. Obama inspired legions of supporters, building a new coalition of Americans that would lead him to victory Tuesday night.

But Levine emphasizes that politics is not limited to elections in Obama's eyes. And so the election itself is not about merely winning; the election is about getting the chance to solve problems. Such an approach necessitates a responsible, civil, supporter-focused campaign, one focused on the issues that yields the fewest number of barriers possible to effective problem-solving, and one that empowers the problem-solvers, energizing us to do the post-election work.

So what about that work? And how does it fit into our discussion about the relationship between the people and their government?

On July 2nd of this year, Obama touched on his expectations for Americans in an address on active citizenship and service in Colorado Springs, CO.

The thesis of the speech (and his campaign):

I am running for President, right now, because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now. This moment is too important to sit on the sidelines. Our country faces determined enemies abroad, and definitive challenges at home. But I have no doubt that in the face of these odds, people who love their country can change it. That is why I am running for President. That is why I’m determined to reach out - not just to Democrats, but to Independents and Republicans who want to move in a new direction. And that is why I won’t just ask for your vote as a candidate - I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am President of the United States.

This will not be a call issued in one speech or one program - this will be a central cause of my presidency. We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges.

[...]

...Make no mistake: our destiny as Americans is tied up with one another. If we are less respected in the world, then you will be less safe. If we keep paying dictators for foreign oil, gas prices are going to keep rising, and so are the oceans. If we can’t give all of our kids a world-class education, then our economy is going to fall behind.

And that’s how it should be. That’s the bet our Founding Fathers were making all of those years ago - that our individual destinies could be tied together in the common destiny of democracy; that government depends not just on the consent of the governed, but on the service of citizens. That’s what history calls us to do. Because loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the 4th of July. Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, and our country will be stronger.

We need your service, right now, at this moment - our moment - in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I am going to ask you to play your part; ask you to stand up; ask you to put your foot firmly into the current of history. I am asking you to change history’s course. And if I have the fortune to be your President, decades from now - when the memory of this or that policy has faded, and when the words that we will speak in the next few years are long forgotten - I hope you remember this as a moment when your own story and the American story came together, and - in the words of Dr. King - the arch of history bent once more towards justice.

This speech certainly defines the citizen and his/her responsibilities as the center of American politics. It calls on citizens to serve each other based on the common purpose shared with their American brothers and sisters. But even more importantly, Obama doesn't stop at the end of the election. Obama is clearly not limiting this discussion to campaign workers doing their part in a campaign, and he's clearly not stopping with the request for votes. He's asking for Americans to take ownership of their country by hitching their individual hopes and dreams to the greater American saga. He's asking for Americans to invest in a country that's already given them so much. Service is symbiotic, as Obama noted: "Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. If you do, your life will be richer, and our country will be stronger."

One visit to change.gov demonstrates his commitment to this philosophy. Under "America Serves," Obama broadens the opportunity to serve, tripling the number of service-oriented "corps" in the government.

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps.

The message is clear: Americans can serve [and should be serving] their country no matter what their background is, no matter what their skills are; everyone has something to offer everyone else.

Frances Moore Lappe wrote about citizenship in her book Hope's Edge (2002).

To me, democracy is an exciting, living practice, what we do every day. But to most, democracy still means something done "to us" or "for us" -- it doesn't relate to our daily lives, and it sure isn't much fun. I now see that to engage in democracy, to jump into this living practice, we all need something tangible to act on. (p. 31)

Obama's victory excited me because he empowered me. He asked me to do something. He welcomed me to the table, asking me to bring my gifts so they could mesh with the gifts of other Americans. He wants me to be involved -- not just to get him elected, but to make our country better. He's not interested in a paper-thin democracy that only asks citizens to get involved when his career's at stake; he wants to thicken democracy, forging connections between the "Great Experiment" itself and the millions of lives it benefits.

Bumped. --Mike

There was an interesting story in the The Washington Post today that profiled young evangelicals who have been noticing where the high ground really is. The story noted that the Obama campaign has been doing significant outreach to young Christians and tomorrow, in concert with Senator Obama’s visit to Rick Warren’s church, the campaign will launch Believers for Barack, which will provide a place to blog about their experiences and find opportunities to help out their communities through service.

That’s right, we’re proud to report that the Democrats Work service model is getting the Obama treatment with a touch of religion.

On Saturday, volunteers mobilized by Believers for Barack are following their moral compass to community service projects in a bunch of different cities: Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK; Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Des Monies, IA; Detroit, MI; Green Bay, WI; Kansas City, MO; Madison, WI; Philadelphia, PA. If you are interested in joining them, you should get in touch with Ashley Brown, who is working on the Obama campaign for the summer: ashley [dot] brown1908 [at] gmail [dot] com.

And, you should join us on September 6th when Democrats across the country will get together for a National Day of Service to improve our communities, change our country one neighborhood at a time, and show our support for Senator Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket. It is a project that is being launched by Democrats Work and our friends who formed the grassroots group, Obama Works.

You don't have to be religious to be driven by faith, and people of all faiths and creeds are invited to host projects wherever the spirit of compassion needs to be brought to their neighborhoods. If you would like to spend an afternoon working a food bank, cleaning a forest trail, helping collect recyclables, or work in any other way in your community, please visit the website and make it happen.

And, just because it makes sense, here’s a snapshot of the reporting in the Washington Post story:

But in the past year, as the presidential campaign has focused on the country's problems, Merritt has begun to question the party of his father. There was his recent revelation that "God is green," a mission trip to orphanages in Brazil that caused him to worry about global poverty, an encounter with a growing strain of politically liberal evangelicalism that has taken off online, and a nagging sense that Bush's unpopularity has been an embarrassment to the evangelicals who overwhelmingly voted for him.

"When you look at the political party that has traditionally championed poverty, social justice and care for the least of these, it's not been the Republican Party," said Merritt, who now considers himself an "independent conservative" and is unsure whom he will vote for in November. "We are to honor the least of these above even ourselves. It's very difficult to reconcile totally."

Indeed.

Last night, a primary election was held between three candidates in the safely Democratic congressional district around Boulder, Colorado. It was a highly competitive, hard-fought race among three strong Democrats. As it turns out, the winner may have been known to us many months ago.

Ten months ago, the three candidates – Joan Fitz-Gerald, Jared Polis, and Will Shafroth – started competing in a quirky Democrats Work contest called “The Coats and Cans Primary.” The winner of that primary was decided by “votes” cast in the form of donated canned goods and winter coats, which were given to local charities around the district. The results of the contest that ended last December were identical to the results of yesterday’s primary. (You can see the contest results here.)

It seems that in both primaries the skills needed to win included the ability to marshal sufficient resources, the ability to widen the field of typical supporters, a certain knack for mobilizing, and a stubborn refusal not to lose. The contest and the election each had a single winner, but what was fascinating to me was what happened along the way.

You can view building a community as a tool to win an election. But turn that on its head and you could have a much more intriguing possibility: an election whose goal is to build a community. That is what happened with the Coats and Cans Primary and what carried though last night.

All three candidates inspired a following, but because the competition was about serving rather than ruling, the following they separately fostered combined into a body of supporters dedicated to service. It stopped being a horse race between candidate A and candidate B, and it started being a collaboration of three Democrats and all of their supporters to get something done for their neighbors. It stopped being about who won or lost, but about what was built.

Last night I visited each of their election night gatherings. At two of the parties, people were somber; one party was elated. But from the combined view of all three, I saw a united political community determined to stay engaged and continue serving. The supporters disagreed on who was best to lead, but all had reached an agreement on where to go. They all wanted to put their hands to work shaping a more just, charitable and committed America.

The candidates attracted their supporters by appealing to a desire to take positive actions and better the common good. Perhaps that should be an obvious thing, but in nearby districts the divisive cruelty of homophobia, xenophobia, and greed have been used for years to prod voters to the polls. A politics of fear and distrust have narrowed down the voters to the rabid few. This new “politics of service” opened the doors and invited a more determined and hopeful generation. It didn't matter if their candidate won or lost, people were engaged and the candidate was merely a way to get to the goal - not the goal itself.

While no single domino fell to start it all, part of what made it work was one person knocking on a door in Colorado and asking if their neighbor had a can of food to spare for a good cause. With this style of politics, no one loses.