Posted on 04/21/2019 3:53:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
“National service will hopefully become one of the themes of the 2020 campaign,” declared Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and up-and-coming Democratic Party presidential candidate.
Why?
Talking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Mayor Buttigieg offered: “we really want to talk about the threat to social cohesion that helps characterize this presidency, but also just this era.”
Oh, goodie, another threat from which the wannabe wizards of Washington can save us.
“One thing we could do that would help change that,” announced Buttigieg, “would be to make it, if not legally obligatory, then certainly a social norm that anybody after they’re 18 spends a year in national service.”
By national service, he means a year of military service or mandatory civilian service, i.e. helping this government agency or that. But what does he mean by “if not legally obligatory”?
Perhaps it is nothing more than this: Buttigieg is indeed considering a program of forced service, but wants plausible deniability, a way to back off in the heat of an election campaign . . . when moms and dads are voting.
Later, on MSNBC’s Monday Joe, he again urged a “look at national service,” and added, “It can be voluntary, but at the very least let’s create more opportunities for more people to have a service year after high school, because that builds community.”
Can be voluntary? I really want to hear Mr. Buttigieg say it cannot be compulsory, no conscription.
A candidate wants to give my 18-year-old an opportunity, a paying job? I’m all ears. A candidate wants to essentially kidnap my young adult for a year? We are going to battle. But what to make of a candidate that isn’t quite sure which way he wants to go, as if a “job opportunity” and “a period of involuntary servitude” were the same thing?
What seems obvious to citizens seems lost on politicians, the rather clear difference between offering jobs to the nation’s 4 million 18-year-olds and dragging them away from their lives to make them work for Washington.
Even if it is strictly a voluntary program — offering more positions for interested young people — Buttigieg talks about creating a year of service as a social norm. He wants “the first question on your college application” or “the first question when you’re being interviewed for a job” to be whether a young person dutifully performed his or her national service.
Hey, I want a lot of things. Does a President Buttigieg plan to force all colleges and employers to ask his question first?
Service is a good thing. It can help both our communities and the people performing the service. But those are the benefits of “service,” not forced service, which is more accurately “servitude.”
And those benefits also come with costs. At the federal minimum wage, it would amount to more than $60 billion a year to hire every 18-year-old American. Not counting a single cent for those hired to manage the program or other overhead and program expenses. And, by definition, these would be make-work jobs for generally low-skilled young people lacking experience.
What could go wrong?
Buttigieg does have a story to tell of enlisting and serving in Afghanistan. “You learn to trust each other with your life,” he says of his volunteer — not drafted — experience. And he wants “more Americans to have that,” he explains, “but I don’t want you to have to go to war to get it.”
Good thinking! Let’s not fight wars merely for the character-building opportunities and increased levels of social cohesion that might result. But let’s also not pretend that sweeping city streets working with AmeriCorps will provide the same life-or-death crucible as combat for producing such bonding moments.
It won’t . . . hopefully.
Host Maddow, for her part, supports a draft, but expressed to Buttigieg her doubts about its feasibility, noting “we seem wired as a country to reject that at every level.”
Thankfully, to her own consternation Maddow is correct: Land of the free, home of the brave and all.
This week in Washington, the Commission on Military, National, and Public Service holds hearings on whether to extend draft registration to women or to end it for men. The commission is charged to report back to Congress next year on this issue as well as presidential contender Buttigieg’s idea of Congress perhaps legislating mandatory military and/or civilian government “service” for young people.
End draft registration for everyone, equally. No forced national service. Leave young people free to pursue their own happiness.
They can find work for the extremely disabled, too.
Can't have any slaves slipping through the cracks.
Let’s have those dedicated to the safety of our country serve... hmmm, that’s what we have now.
There is nothing good about this idea. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
It is another way to have a great, big huge bureaucracy with tens of thousands of employees “managing” it, millions of people bilking it, and nothing worthwhile coming of it.
Good God. We even have people on FR openly supporting this.
He might not make it “compulsory”, but might make it a prerequisite for being eligible for college financial aid.
“National service will hopefully become one of the themes of the 2020 campaign,”
Yeah, and the “official” service uniform will include a rubber ball gag.
With colleges growing more and more unattractive to young men, as shown by the ratio of male to female students on campuses, national service actually might appear like a viable option for many of them.
The PC culture has its victims, and the university campus is one of them....
My guess is that he wants 18 year old kids to man the bath house and to be on the “Oil A Hunk with baby oil team”. The ladies can of course volunteer to pass the oil or clean the bath house hot tubs every week.
Of course they will be [paid in coupons to upgrade your Happy Meal or to get a really, really big whopper.......oh, wait, I mean a large whopper...oh my, to get a coupon for ....well, you know what I mean.
> You shouldn’t be able to vote if you don’t have skin in the game.
Some are not capable of “national service”.
That’s a commie idea.
To the Founders, “skin in the game” meant property owners.
“If I were king, I would move the age of majority up to 25.”
For certain it was a mistake to drop the voting age to 18 and some idiots want to drop it to 16. We have a system based on only allowing tax paying, property owning citizens over 21 to vote and now the dimwits want to give the vote to 16 year old non-citizens. That will work out just great.
I remember the farce that was the draft during the 1960s. The wealthy and elites have always found a way to get out of it, going back to the Civil War.
It's an idea, like eradicating the Electoral College, until you think it through to its logical conclusion...and cognitive thinking has disappeared over the past few decades.
Rachel Maddow in favor of the draft? LOLOL, she went to the same liberal HS I went to, 15 miles south of Berkeley. It's complete BS. I was castigated during my last two months in HS, for accepting an ROTC scholarship. I even had teachers saying to my face how "disappointed" they were in me.
Yeah, these liberals will say how much they're in favor of "national service", until their own kids are close to turning 18.
Pete the Psychopath; control is the goal ...
Just think of the enormous bruecracy it would take to plan that, implement and enforce it. Everytime the subject of mandatory national service comes up, the masses go wild for it. Deep down, they love servitude to the State and would apparently enjoy becoming subjects.
Compulsory servitude is a non starter with me. Probably the only reason he really wants it is to make them sign up for a government union and pay dues for a year. His line about building community is total nonsense speak.
Wrong.
This guy supposedly worked for military intelligence. I think the question is ours or the Rooskies, what with all his “progressive” ideas.
“Buttigieg talks about creating a year of service as a social norm. He wants “the first question on your college application” or “the first question when you’re being interviewed for a job” to be whether a young person dutifully performed his or her national service.”
It reminds me of the Soviet Union where only members of the Party were eligible for certain privileges, and certain positions or jobs. They were first class citizens, essentially. Under Butty’s plan, service in the civilian service corps is entirely voluntary, and entitles one to cut the line in college and employment applications. I’m sure it wouldn’t stop there, either. It naturally follows that those having served in the civilian service corps would have preference over others in applying for loans, waiting in line for service anywhere, or any myriad social situations. And those who choose to voluntarily increase their service years would receive an even higher social status. Of course, government stipends would be instituted for all who enlist in the civilian service corps, and the stipend would increase as well. I could see millions falling for it.
A compulsory program is a hard sell for reasons indicated in the article. Too heavy a whiff of totalitarianism.
If somebody who wants a new service program gets elected what you're more likely to see is some smaller voluntary program. Jobs for inner-city kids. College loans cancelled in exchange for time spent working for the government.
He wants “the first question on your college application” or “the first question when you’re being interviewed for a job” to be whether a young person dutifully performed his or her national service.
Hey, I want a lot of things. Does a President Buttigieg plan to force all colleges and employers to ask his question first?
I see the point. Buttigieg thinks that the things he "wants" ought to be compulsory. And he wants things to be centralized in Washington under the federal government's control.
People who do take a year off after high school to do something generally do look better to colleges and perform better in college than those who go straight to college after graduation. It's definitely an advantage to have gotten away from home and been out in the world for a year.
But if you apply to college when you're in high school what you do in a gap year isn't yet a factor. The college can't ask you about what you haven't done yet. So apart from the totalitarian implications I don't think Buttigieg has really thought this through.
Reminds me of Obama. Same handlers?
I don't even understand what he's saying here.
Leave young people free to pursue their own happiness.
Guess he doesn’t get out much and see whats going on when with the young logic.
Like he took all the right paths in life he’s just another do as you pleas idiot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.