A Righteous Wind

With all the recent talk of wind --conservative-crippling headwinds, righteous liberal tailwinds --one might think we were soldiering through the Ides of March and not rooted in early November. Alas, it is the fall and a change of seasons is indeed upon us: a sea change, you might say.

Barack Obama has been elected President, and whether you cast your ballot for him or for John McCain, whether you believe that global warming is a reality or a farce, you have to admit that meteorology aside, January will bring a vastly different climate to this country than the one we've experienced of late.

In the days, weeks, months and even years (this was a long election cycle, the most sustained in our nation's history) leading up to the election, there was much talk of the perfect storm that had gathered and would likely elevate the Democratic nominee to the seat of the Presidency. This was, in large part, why the Democratic primary was so hotly-contested: the victor in that race was virtually guaranteed to be our next President. Conversely, pundits and campaign spokespeople alike were quick to point to the immobilizing headwinds facing McCain specifically --and the Republican Party more generally --as the country marched towards November 4th.

The perfect storm drew strength from the hot waters in which our current President found himself: an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq; a recessed and volatile economy (not an enviable combination); and a scarcity of political capital to manage either of the aforementioned. Add to that the zephyr of public perception that Washington was "broken" and it seemed that the deck was stacked against any candidate operating under the banner of the Republican Party, no matter how maverick-y his behavior.

And for once --OK, maybe that's unfair --the talking heads were right: the perfect storm was indeed perfect (witness the stunning vision of 125,000 people gathered in Grant Park on Tuesday evening) and the headwinds were too strong for even the most resilient of war veterans and the most pit bull-ish of governors to overcome. Case closed, right?

Nope; not so fast. As we turn the page on the election of 2008 and begin to contemplate the ways in which an Obama administration will address the challenges facing our country, we'd be wise to cleave to this perfect storm metaphor a moment longer.

Even the most bi-partisan of observers is quick to point out that President-elect Obama faces a daunting task: living up to the domestic and international expectations he's created. Even if he can successfully orchestrate an eloquent withdrawal from Iraq, gracefully reclaim an American seat at the geopolitical table, and carefully manage fraught relationships with Russia, North Korea and Iran, he's confronted with sky-high joblessness and homelessness numbers, a broken health care system, an educational quagmire and a faltering (that may be too kind an adjective) economy that has even the most bullish of investors tucking Ben Franklins under their mattresses.

So he's doomed, right? The Republicans are going to reconstitute their party and mount a fierce offensive in four years, pointing to all of the ways in which the Obama administration couldn't deliver on its promises. What politician --or group of them --possibly could?

Call me optimistic; paint me as hopelessly (or hopefully) Pollyanna-ish, but I happen to think that Obama will be able to deliver on the majority of his pledges. Maybe not in the first year, and maybe not even in the first term, as he was quick to tell us on Tuesday night; but he will deliver and I'll tell you why: because quite apart from the perfect storm that landed him in the White House, there's another perfect storm brewing, one whose gale-force winds President-elect Obama is uniquely qualified to harness.

It's the perfect storm of what Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, calls the recent “emergence of the citizen sector.” In accepting the first-ever Purpose Prize Entrepreneurial Leadership Award Drayton explained, “We are, in fact, now at the take-off point of the biggest transition in history since the Agricultural Revolution. And everyone…has a very important role to play.”

Never before in human history have we seen the mobilization of such an engaged, knowledgeable, vibrant and well-capitalized citizen sector. The US has long led all other countries in the viability of our independent sector. Just ask de Tocqueville. Figures from 2007 estimate that the nonprofit sector accounted for 5.2% of GDP and 8.3% of wages and salaries paid in the US; our next closest competitor is Great Britain, whose nonprofit sector accounts for just 2.2% of its GDP. From 1996 through 2006, the nonprofit sector grew at twice the rate of the private sector.

Why is this important? Because when facing the multi-pronged task of restoring equanimity, equality and equity to this country, President-elect Obama will have a tool in his toolbox that no former President has had. He and his advisors will have an additional lever to pull that does not read "government intervention" nor "private sector solution." President-elect Obama has at his disposal a third sector, a citizen sector, that is ready, willing and able to begin tackling challenges both domestic and foreign: homelessness, joblessness, health care collapse, large-scale educational failure, global poverty and racial division. Of course this third sector has been at work for a while –-some might say centuries --but not 'til of late (ie: Tuesday evening late) has it had such a sense of purpose and such a dynamic leader.

Few people know the power and the terrain of our country's citizen sector better than President-elect Obama, whose community organizing (hold the air quotes and the snarky Republican applause, please) set the groundwork for what became a game-changing political campaign, the likes of which we voters have never seen. How he will choose to avail himself of the potential energy of this movement has yet to be determined (although he and Vice President-elect Biden offer a few clues on the website change.gov. What is clear, though, is that rather than having to deploy either the government or big business to begin to implement the change he seeks, President-elect Obama, for the first time in history, will have a viable third sector to which he can outsource responsibility, a sector populated by recent college graduates and second-career Wall Street opt-outs; dreamers and pragmatists; the passionately committed and the dispassionately administratively-minded. All will be prepared to heed whatever call he sounds.

The fact that a President-elect, whose roots lie in community organizing and whose passion for service outshines most, has come to power at the precise moment when our country’s citizen sector has achieved unprecedented strength and gravitas …well, that’s what I call a perfect storm. And yes, that is a righteous wind we have at our backs.