Last week John Kerry was off on a cross-country ballot-buying trip, stopping at a number of college campuses. Vote for me, he said to students, and I will reward you with a new government program that will provide — in exchange for a period of national service — a $4,000 tuition subsidy to each program participant, to be raised through the tax system, and therefore from others' financial resources. Unfortunately, there are two serious problems with this shameless vote-purchasing scheme: It is harmful to a free society, and it will not deliver the promised results. The ills of this proposal...