President Barack Obama addressed SXSW 2016 attendees from Dell Hall in Austin, Texas. Interviewed by Evan Smith, founder and CEO of The Texas Tribune, Obama spoke on the ways technology can empower better government and drive civic engagement. In the process he made a sustained argument for the continued relevance of government to a crowd versed in the tenets of tech libertarianism.
Obama began his keynote Q&A at the 2016 SXSW Interactive describing the enormous opportunities made possible by technical advancement, but sounded a cautionary note as well.
“We’re at a moment in history where technology globalization and our economy are changing so fast,” Obama said. “Those changes offer us enormous opportunities, but are also very disruptive and unsettling.”
Turning one of the tech sector’s favorite buzzwords, “disruptive,” back against them was just the beginning of a sustained argument for the continued relevance of government to a segment of our economy whose luminaries often treat government as outmoded, even unnecessary.
“An anti-government mentality grows when people feel frustrated that they’re not getting good service,” Obama said, before arguing, half-jokingly, that if he could only reform each and every DMV it would significantly improve the public perception of government.
Obama sees technology as a key component in turning around the popular conception of government as bloated and outdated. “We’ve reduced the FAFSA form process where you apply through student aid by two-thirds, just through digitizing it,” he said.
“When government does great things we take it for granted and it’s not a story,” Obama said after conceding that the rollout of the Affordable Care Act website was a perfect example of “the big and the bloated and the frustrating.”
“I can find the fiercest libertarian in the room who despises every level of government and thinks it’s all-corrupting. But they’re checking the weather on their phone and there’s a government satellite that facilitates that,” the President said. “We just take for granted that of course there are roads and of course we have a geosatellite system.”
Even while calling for increased civic engagement from the tech sector representatives at the 2016 SxSW, Obama maintained that there are some areas that the private sector will never be inclined to serve.
“The private sector doesn’t have to figure out how to educate the poorest kids. The private sector doesn’t have to figure out how to protect us from a terrorist cell. If you have aging, sick veterans, the private sector may not serve them as well. Or to figure out how do we get homeless off the streets,” Obama said. “The toughest problems are government problems.”
Ultimately, Obama asked for SXSW attendees to engage with government and contribute to its collective betterment, rather than detach. “It’s not enough to focus on what’s the cool next thing,” Obama said. His message was both a condemnation of complacency and an olive branch to one of the economies’ most influential sectors. “The most important office in a civil democracy is the office of citizen.”
