|
    
OPEN LEFT CAMPAIGNS
Less Recent
|
 Friends of the Earth thanks the OpenLeft community for the ideas you generate and your contributions to the progressive movement. blog advertising is good for you blog advertising is good for you
LIBERAL INSTITUTIONS
STATE BLOGS
|
||||||||||
This had a very profound impact on the structure of our Constitution, including the balancing of power between large and small states, hence the relative power balance of the House, Senate, presidency and the states. This interacted with military and warmaking power--the Congress declares war, the President is commander-in-chief, the Senate ratifies treaties, the House funds the military (all spending originates there), and the states organize militias so that large standing peacetime armies are not needed (the original purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to secure this part of the system.)
Now, as luck would have it, the militia side of the equation was arguably the first to fail. It never worked as planned, and we were just damned lucky that it was damn near impossible to wage war on us, or we'd a been a goner. But it wasn't till WWII, and the rapid followup of the Cold War that there was anything like the need for a large standing army that might require anything close to universal service.
This briefly summarizes why it's so mistaken to shake your fists at the liberal elite. The Italian city-state republics were continually threatened by military force, and thus universal service was organically integrated into both the theory and practice of their very political existence, but this has never been the case in American history, except episodically, and it is not true today. Our existence doesn't depend on imperial adventures halfway 'round the globe, which is precisely why it's absurd to judge our republic point-by-point against Italian city-state examples.
I'm all in favor--strongly in favor--of strengthening our republican foundations. But this has to be done a realistic basis, not a fanciful one.
That's why, for example, I think it makes very good sense to require a period of universal service during mid-to-late adolescence--not military service, though I think quasi-military service (ROTC combined with actual work, such as paramedic field work, for example) would be fine.
"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"