“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Or maybe not: I prefer it when “cooler heads prevail.”
But as our times get desperate, here comes Tony Blankley with a new book, True Grit.
Blankley calls for a universal draft that would delay college or work for your 18- or 19-year-old boy or girl, forcibly placing them under government control. Under Blankley’s plan the military would get first dibs, but those not forced into military service would be corralled into civilian government service.
This is, well, stupid. One of the federal government’s few big successes has been the all-volunteer military. Forcing people, not suited or interested, into armed service may seem egalitarian, but it undermines the military, which ought to concentrate on winning wars.
Moreover, to force millions more into government make-work programs, again in the name of fairness, will cost taxpayers plenty — and uproot the lives of young people.
Charlie Rangel has been the most persistent conscription pusher. His draft legislation proved so overwhelmingly unpopular that when it was brought up in Congress even he voted against it.
In a review of True Grit at Human Events, Blankley is described as progressing politically from being a libertarian to a conservative to a nationalist.
Sorry, that’s not progress.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.