Posted on 06/04/2021 5:59:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
Our country is broken -- it's coming apart at the seams -- and it is not going to fix itself. Repairing it will take effort from all of us. It may require consideration of some big national changes. Too many of us are just sitting back and watching America's decline. It's time to consider any idea that holds some promise for national renewal, any idea that could universally bring us all together and teach us a shared cause.
Perhaps even mandatory national service.
Mandatory service would require every 18-year-old to serve for a year or more. It is not a radical or new idea. Seventy-five countries have some form of national service requirement, and we've already required service at times in American history. It can also be broader than just military service. Other options include the Peace Corps, community service, cleaning up public lands and rebuilding aging infrastructure.
As a society, we are growing increasingly self-interested. Citizenship brings responsibility beyond self-interest. The concept of civic responsibility -- as enunciated so eloquently by President John Kennedy -- is eroding. A national service requirement can help reinvigorate a shared sense of citizenship in everyday Americans.
America is also becoming increasingly polarized and siloed along economic and racial lines. We no longer interact with those outside our own cohort. A rich kid growing up with parents in the New York City finance world likely has zero idea what it's like in an aging Ohio steel town. The kid in the steel town can't even imagine New York. They are two different worlds. Throw in racial division, and the whole thing is magnified. For a multiethnic, multiracial country with as many new immigrants as we have, this sort of polarization is deadly to national culture and unity. None of these dynamics is brand-new, but they are getting worse.
The social and cultural segregation in our country is directly contributing to the coarseness of our national culture and politics. We no longer just disagree in America; we vilify those who don't share our views. Democrats think Republicans are Klansmen without the hoods. Republicans think Democrats are Joseph Stalin before the purges. Rural people think city people are snobby, materialistic and out of touch. Cosmopolitan urbanites think country people are stupid, fat and lazy.
When you have little interaction with those who don't share your background or beliefs, it's easy to view them as caricatures. It becomes easier to demonize or marginalize them. This results in the sort of fissures we have in America today and the normalization of summary political violence; we've all seen it. Left to fester, these dynamics lead to the downfall of societies.
We need to break down racial, class and geographic barriers to help create a stronger sense of national community. Doing that is not easy, but mandatory service can help rekindle a sense of civic pride and begin to erode some of the extreme polarization in America. A year's service requirement will bring together Americans from all walks of life, which will help young people understand one another. Contact reduces intolerance and promotes cohesion. And we are definitely short on national cohesion. We need it now more than we have at any time since at least the 1960s and maybe since the 1860s.
The main argument against mandatory national service comes from the military. America did have mandatory military conscription until 1973. Since then, we have had an all-volunteer force. Our professional voluntary military has served us well. Bringing in recruits who don't want to serve can cause problems with morale and discipline. We experienced this in Vietnam. We did, however, fight World War II with a system of mandatory conscripts based on registration and a lottery system. That seemed to work pretty well.
Mandatory service on the military side brings another benefit. Twenty years of fighting in the Middle East has contributed significantly to the erosion of support and trust in our national leaders. One reason may be that the brunt of the pain was endured by American working-class families. Working-class kids were enticed to join the military by ever-increasing bonuses and retention programs. This brought a sense in much of America that our leaders were out of touch and not feeling the pain that can come with extended military engagements. There are, of course, prominent exceptions to this -- including even the president's son, who served in the National Guard -- but as a general matter, it's true that wealthier citizens don't often serve in the military. Mandatory service would put an end to this dynamic.
The concept of a national service requirement is surprisingly popular nationally, considering nobody has been out making the case for it in a prominent way. In the 2020 election, Pete Buttigieg and John Delaney argued for some form of national service in the Democratic primary, but it was not a major talking point. Still, according to a Gallup poll in 2017, half of all Americans are in favor of a one-year mandatory national service requirement. Interestingly, the support is relatively bipartisan; 44% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans are in favor.
National service is complicated. It must be presented properly, or it could be a loser politically, and there are downsides we should explore fully. If you agree, however, that Americans are too self-absorbed and no longer as civic-minded, and especially if you think we are lacking in national cohesion, a national service requirement could be just the answer.
You can either be free or you can have mandatory service. The two don’t mesh. There is always some lame brain pushing this idea and their rationale is that other countries do it.
So let’s ignore election theft and start implementing Phase II of Communist overthrow. This is disgusting.
National Service?
I gave to the IRS.
Anyone seriously supporting this needs to be beaten within an inch of their life, disenfranchised, and deported.
Another stupid Dem-lite idea from the GOP-e.
Gee what a swell idea. Forced labor for the Marxists. This country is off the damn rails if this kind of stupid idea is being pushed by Townhall.
And we call all be indoctrinated with lessons in diversity, critical race theory, and Marxism.
We’re finally making some inroads into breaking the public school indoctrination monopoly (11% of students are now homeschooled) and you want to undo it all.
No thanks.
Sounds like one more mandatory indoctrination opportunity, as well as another redistribution of wealth.
Too bad they are destroying the military with making it the LGBQT or whatever.
Beyond dangerous and reckless idea.
Lets set up a mandatory Soros Youth Group to
brainwash all those kids
that the Commie public schools missed .
What a clueless fool .
Yes, let’s train liberals in the use of weapons.
Well of course the RATS like Buttguy would be for this. We could have the Young Commissars and the Youth Pioneers. I hear the Russians have a whole lot of red scarfs for sale cheap.
Mandatory military service in the current environment will provide even more opportunity for indoctrination of our youth about evil white people. What is being suggested is pie in the sky BS. There are a plethora of logistical and legal hurdles to be cleared. The author somehow thinks people in rural America never meet people of other races an creeds. City folk never meet country bumpkins. That thought process is 40 years or more outdated. Even more so because of the rise of social media in the last 10 years.
The author seems to want the State to teach our children responsibility and not the parents. At our kitchen table my mother explained to me how in Gods eyes we are all the same. Treat all people with respect. My father taught me to respect any man who works hard for a living. Working men regardless of race deserve respect.
Absolutely not. Just another way for the lift to develop their American version of the Hitler Youth. With them everything is indoctrination
Having half the country getting substantial government handouts and the other half paying burdensome taxes is a recipe for deep division.
this would actually be a terrific idea if only there weren’t so many stupid or poorly educated people in this country.
Sounds like slavery to me. Want to help heal the nation? Get rid of the journalists
Or a stint in Obama’s Domestic National Security Force . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJuMq8sz_Q
Be careful what you wish for.
“We no longer interact with those outside our own cohort. A rich kid growing up with parents in the New York City finance world likely has zero idea what it’s like in an aging Ohio steel town. The kid in the steel town can’t even imagine New York. They are two different worlds. Throw in racial division, and the whole thing is magnified. For a multiethnic, multiracial country with as many new immigrants as we have, this sort of polarization is deadly to national culture and unity. None of these dynamics is brand-new, but they are getting worse.”
How about just moving the Congress around?
A session in Youngstown or Compton would enlighten the members.
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