Eric Liu, CEO of Citizen University.
Michael B. Maine
American politics may be in tatters, economy teetering, pandemic afoot – but what better time to revisit our connections to some very basic ideals, like democracy and justice? For decades, Americans have moaned about a “broken” political system too dysfunctional to fix itself from within, yet almost impervious to reform from without. Eric Liu breaks the stalemate through his non-partisan Citizen University, with offerings available nationwide and aimed at increasing citizen participation in public affairs. Ashoka recently spoke with Eric:
Why are people losing faith in democracy right now?
Many have become cynical about democracy’s ability to deliver, about the elites running both parties for decades. People feel like the system is so rigged there’s no point in bothering. Yet at the same moment other Americans are waking to the urgent need to revitalize our democracy.
Isn’t this a gigantic problem of culture and norms?
Strong democracy requires strong citizens — citizen in the broad and inclusive sense of being a contributor to community. For us, culture precedes structure. Plenty of countries have perfectly fine constitutions on paper. But they lack a culture of civic responsibility, they lack a culture of bottom-up change, of dissent and debate, they lack the norms of mutual aid and problem solving. The United States risks becoming such a place, pretty constitution but atrophied culture.
In our work, we focus on what we call America’s “civic religion” — the body of ideals, creeds, deeds, and rituals that Americans are supposed to live up to. Voting is one such ritual, of course, but so are service, participation, and spontaneous action during a crisis like a pandemic. Four years ago in Seattle we started a new ritual called Civic Saturdays. Think of them as a civic analogue to a faith gathering. We sing together, turn to the strangers next to us to talk about hard questions. We hear readings of texts from our shared past — civic scripture. And there’s a civic sermon at the heart of the gathering, to help folks make ethical sense of the challenges we face. The practice of civic religion is not about blind faith, indoctrination, or the party line. It’s an invitation to reckon with reality.
Word spread quickly about Civic Saturdays, and people asked us to bring the gathering to their towns. We obliged for a while but having our team run around the country is super not-scaleable. So we created a Civic Seminary program to train catalytic leaders to lead Civic Saturdays in their own communities.
How do joy and playfulness factor into your work?
Joy is inseparable from the spirit of citizenship. We do not wag a finger, scold, shout, “Do your duty!” We invite: “Join the club, join the party, find meaning in your belonging!” We created another program called Sworn-Again America that captures the sense of intention and joyful ritual of a naturalization ceremony, and it centers on a non-partisan oath about being useful to community and country. And it’s for everyone, brand-new American and native-born, documented or not. It’s a chance to renew our vows as citizens. Not to be born again, but to be sworn again. People started doing Sworn-Again ceremonies on their own in all kinds of settings: military bases, classrooms, college campuses, dinner tables. The moment has an aspect of joy, but a core of serious recommitment to our country’s creed.
How do you handle today’s tribalism and partisanship?
Tribalism dehumanizes, and we’re trying to re-humanize civic life. We ask deeper questions: Who are you responsible for? Who have you failed in your life? How do you try to make a sense of family when you don’t have family? You don’t get to pick your neighbors all the time, but we’re in it together. This is what I call civic love.
You are a cultural entrepreneur — changing hearts and minds. What is your theory of change?
Historically, norms change before policy does. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts became possible only when a critical mass of Americans shifted towards a norm of equality. It took a mass of people with a cultural message. Long before the Supreme Court ratified marriage equality, a norm took hold: love is love. Society becomes how you behave. Every act, civil or uncivil, discourteous or courteous, uncaring or caring, sets off a contagion.
Tell us about your partners.
We have so many. On Civic Saturdays, we work with public libraries, colleges and universities, faith organizations, the YMCA, the Family Independence Initiative. We’ve worked with Encore, Code for America. We approach partnerships in terms of mutual aid. We created something called the Civic Collaboratory, which is this national network of civic innovators, from civic tech, civic education, veterans, immigrant rights, you name it. We call it a mutual aid club because we meet three times a year and every time we meet, we take turns presenting projects to each other and securing hard commitments for our colleagues, capital of every kind. We’ve been running this for eight plus years.
What energizes you amid the hurt and turmoil of this pandemic?
Our Youth Collaboratory program includes high school sophomores and juniors from across the country. We regularly gather these young changemakers on Zoom and they are just solving things! They are finding ways to support each other, to supply food drives, to construct online tutoring platforms for classmates, to translate materials about Covid-19 into languages that their immigrant parents speak. We need government to provide direction and resources, but I am just so hopeful and heartened by the young people we see every day. This is our challenge and our opportunity. Can we really mean it when we say we’re all in this together?
Eric Liu is an Ashoka Fellow, CEO of Citizen University, and executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program. He is a widely read author and teacher on civic identity and leadership, and a former White House speechwriter.
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