{"id":2764,"date":"2003-01-03T12:29:23","date_gmt":"2003-01-03T12:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.armedliberal.com\/?p=522"},"modified":"2003-01-03T12:29:23","modified_gmt":"2003-01-03T12:29:23","slug":"feeling-a-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2764","title":{"rendered":"FEELING A DRAFT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Drum<\/a> whacks another one into the stands, as he talks about the draft:<\/p>\n

\u0085but I have a better (and more serious) idea: mandatory national service.
\nThis is not a new idea, but it’s the kind of thing that we should be seriously discussing these days. Patriotism, after all, does not come from reciting the pledge of alliegance every day or flying an American flag in front of your home. It comes from a deep seated notion that you live in a great country and that you share some of this greatness with your fellow countrymen.
\nMandatory national service would oblige everyone who lives here to give something back to their country. It would allow teenagers to see firsthand what other parts of America are like, and what their fellow Americans are like. It would allow blacks to work alongside whites, rich alongside poor, and natives alongside immigrants. It would provide a large workforce that could be deployed both domestically and internationally. It would provide manpower for our inner cities and ambassadors to the third world. Military service would count, of course, but no one would be forced to serve in the military, and the vast majority of teenagers would serve in non-military areas.<\/I><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Add a few things to this proposal\u0085those who graduate get means-tested subsidized basic health care a la the VA, and education and homebuying aid a la the GI bill, and you\u0092re beginning to be on to something.
\nPoor kids could spend time in school, catching up. Affluent kids could spend some time doing service. Adventurous kids could go into the military. Disabled kids can contribute too.
\nAll of them would probably benefit from a break between high school and college or work.
\nI\u0092d steal management from the military for it, though. The military has done a superb job of taking in a random assortment of young kids and turning most of them into adults. This should be boot camp, not summer camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Drum whacks another one into the stands, as he talks about the draft: \u0085but I have a better (and more serious) idea: mandatory national service. This is not a new idea, but it’s the kind of thing that we should be seriously discussing these days. Patriotism, after all, does not come from reciting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}