John Bridgeland, former Director of President George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council and the USA Freedom Corps, has a great post over at Townhall.com this morning, bookending a week that started with the announcement that U.S. Senator John McCain will attend the Service Nation Summit on September 11, 2008 in New York City.

From military service to traditional volunteers in neighborhoods, from full-time national service in AmeriCorps programs like Habitat for Humanity, City Year and Teach for America to Peace Corps volunteers and Volunteers for Prosperity who tackle HIV/AIDS and malaria in Africa, from Citizen Corps emergency responders and medical reserve corps professionals to veterans who return home and continue their service to disadvantaged children, America can empower citizens rather than bureaucracies to address our nation’s toughest problems. Service programs fill the critical gap between government and the individual citizen, performing services big government bureaucracies and the private sector cannot or will not, while also teaching participants about good citizenship. There’s nothing more Republican (or American) than that.

Bridgeland is the CEO & President of Civic Enterprises, LLC, a co-convener of the Service Nation Summit.