I just ran across an article titled “Presidential candidates and “substance”" by Glenn Greenwald that touches pointedly on my earlier comment. He writes:

“All of the candidates, including Obama, are going to issue a detailed health care plan soon enough. But the political system in which those health care plans — and every other specific legislative proposal — are going to be assessed, debated and processed is profoundly corrupt and broken.

Thus, any candidate who does not address those systemic political diseases is not actually being “substantive” at all, no matter how many thick white papers they issue chock full of think-tank-developed “plans.” Between (a) a candidate who understands our fundamental political problems but who has yet to issue a detailed health care plan and (b) a candidate who has all sorts of detailed, wonky legislative policies developed by aides but who has no real critique of our political culture and will do nothing but feed off of it and perpetuate it, candidate (a) is clearly the more “substantive” candidate in the way that matters. “

Erin’s questions and suggestions about the next step in Obama’s participatory campaign are remarkably on point. How can he engage the American public to help his campaign further develop its policies? How can he create a participatory political platform? In our connected age of technological revolutions that are giving way to a new participatory politics and culture, this a question that every candidate and campaign should be asking.

While political mavericks and policy experts will always have a strong hand in shaping policies, there is an immense amount of creative, intelligent, innovative thought amongst the broader American public that needs to be tapped into and incorporated. How to set up some sort of open system and process to accomplish this in a smooth-flowing and realistic way is quite another question.

Having an open forum about the issues is a great way to start, though I’m not sure how the best ideas would be filtered out. One idea is that the community as a whole could vote on the best policy options that emerge and those with the most votes would rise to the top where they could then be offered to Obama’s policy team.

On a similar note, this is something that I think it would be great for Barack the Youth Vote to engage in. We could set up a system and process for America’s youth to develop innovative and creative solutions that could potentially find their way into Obama’s policy platform. And in either case, it would be a great way to increase our generation’s political engagement and thinking.

While I’m sympathetic with those who feel that Obama needs to come out stronger on where he stands on the issues, I think many people forget that restoring civic hope and action IS an issue, and possibly the most important of them all. Without that “hope” and subsequent impetus to action, people can’t even begin to truly engage the serious issues we face as a nation.

Yesterday I attended an inspiring community kickoff “houseparty” with students from around Washington, DC. At one point we began discussing what the most important issues are to those who were in attendance. The list compiled was what you would expect to find: the War in Iraq & American foreign policy, climate change & the environment, universal health care, education & affordable tuition, ethics reform, etc. The issue I shared though was one that I don’t hear people voicing enough as a legitimate and highly important issue: civic renewal. This is an issue that directly affects our ability to deal with the other issues, and it is one that Obama has a unique and incredible power to take up and champion. Hence the reason it has become the thematic issue of his campaign.

We need to work hard to make it clear to our nation that “civic renewal” is an issue that should be front and center with all of our other pressing political priorities.