Obama's citizenship has always had another side: gritty, practical work joining self-interest with public impact. Work holds potential to spread citizenship into many activities and many jobs.

work joining self-interest with public impact. Work holds potential to spread citizenship into many activities and many jobs.]]>

In a culture of polarized politics, quick fixes, and success defined as making money, how might citizenship become an ethos across the aisle, not an exception?

In a culture of polarized politics, quick fixes, and success defined as making money, how might citizenship become an ethos across the aisle, not an exception?

In the Republican convention this week, we have a specter of what that might look like. Citizenship and the commonwealth are disappearing like the cat in Alice in Wonderland. It is up to all of us to bring them back.

Today, we face new and daunting challenges. Public opinion research shows that Americans are deeply worried about long term problems which neither government nor markets, by themselves, can solve.

In Minnesota, the citizen politics used by MN United may show that a different kind of politics is not only civic -- concerned with the long-term health of the public culture, in addition to the issue at hand. It is also effective on one of the most contentious issues of our time.