Exclusive Interview: The Obamas on The Meaning of Public Service

We’ve done this enormous national poll about national service, and one of the things that we discovered … is that, in fact, volunteering [among some people] is down … I’m wondering what you make of that and what you think the significance of that is for national service?

THE PRESIDENT: I think that people are understandably anxious right now and feeling insecure economically. They are worried about home payments. They’re worried about bills. They’re worried about losing their health care. They’re worried about their 401(k)s and whether or not they’re going to be able to afford to send their kids to college. And so I think that there’s an understandable sense that “I really have to take care of home base right now and make sure that I’m doing everything I can to provide security for my family.” Now, I would argue that now is exactly the time where we need more volunteerism.

How do you make the argument to people who are saying … Hey, I’ve lost my job, and you’re telling me to volunteer?

MRS. OBAMA: As the President said, I think that these are challenging times, but one of the things that we’ve talked about and I talk about among my friends is that now is the time to get involved in your church. Now is the time to go to your kids’ school and participate … in your parent-teacher conference. Go on a field trip. There are so many ways within your own community that you can get involved and you can add value to your own self-interest.

People have changed the way they are consuming. For example, in the past year, [more] people bought a green product. [More] people bought a product from a company that shows social responsibility whose values they like … People are becoming kind of citizen consumers, and that is related to this idea of service.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think you especially see that in the next generation, even among our daughters. I remember Malia maybe three years ago–she was 8 or 7–said, “You’ve got to get a hybrid because this is polluting the air and killing polar bears.” And you really start seeing, I think, a level of awareness about how decisions you make, about where you shop or what car you drive, has an impact on the broader world. And so I think it’s a positive thing. Now, it’s important that that does not replace more traditional notions of volunteering–partly because I think that what service provides is an opportunity for human interaction and relationship-building that is so important to the fabric of our country as a whole. We’ve always had a strong tradition of individualism–“I’m going to make it on my own”–and self-reliance, and that’s one of the most special, precious things about America. But you’ve also had a running thread of community that Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about and voluntary associations and organizations. And that’s been just as important in creating the bonds of trust and the community infrastructure that means kids are growing up healthy. And Little Leagues have coaches. And churches and synagogues and mosques–religious institutions are out in the community and not just focused inward.

Both in terms of volunteerism and this idea of kind of civic consumerism, our polls show that there has been a, for lack of a better term, kind of Obama effect–that includes both of you–[since] you started talking about, early on, this very American idea of doing well by doing good: green industry, the idea that principles and progress are not mutually exclusive.

THE PRESIDENT: I think our campaign was an expression of people wanting to be engaged and involved in different ways. They didn’t want to just be passive consumers of political television ads. They wanted to have their voices heard. They wanted to interact with their membership–or with their neighbor and their friends. They wanted to be part of something larger than themselves. And we, I think, tapped into it in technological terms. But it wasn’t really the technology that was the story. It was that there was this underlying impulse for people to get involved, especially among younger people.

MRS. OBAMA: You always have to remind people … that solutions and forward movement on any issue require a multipronged approach. You need government. You need individuals. You need strong communities … They all have to be working in sync.

About a third of Americans … say that they’ve changed their lives and they’ve made essentially a kind of new social contract. They’re buying things that are greener. They’re buying things that have a sense of social responsibility … I wonder if you could talk about this idea.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think this is a positive thing, and it speaks to something we’ve tried to express during the campaign–Washington hasn’t quite caught up to it yet–and that is that a traditional argument was between those who thought government could do everything and those who thought government shouldn’t do anything … My sense is what people are looking for now is a sense of responsibility and intentionality, in that your actions have consequences, and we want our government to be responsible … And so the more we think in terms of “Are we doing everything that is within our power to effect good outcomes?” and then expect responsibility from all our institutions–government, business, not-for-profit sector–then I think that’s a pretty good recipe for the continued success of the American experiment.

But I do have to continually insist that … there is a special benefit to society in the hands-on, face-to-face service of working at a soup kitchen or mentoring a child or visiting seniors in a nursing home that is irreplaceable. It not only is good for the person getting the service; it’s good for the person who’s giving the service. And there’s nothing new about that. That’s–that is something elemental about the human spirit.

Full Transcript To read the entire interview with the President and First Lady, go to time.com/responsibility