Posted by
Duane Bolick on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 11:57:22 PM
A favorite bugbear of the American liberal is that Republicans are always a hair-trigger away from reinstating the draft, and forcing citizens to serve in the military. But who
really supports conscription? Which party has historically supported it? Which party ended it in the 70's? And most importantly, which party wants to reinstate it today?
Unsurprisingly, the president who signed the first, modern draft into law (the Selective Training and Service Act (STSA) of 1940) was none other than the big-government Democrat who helped worsen the Great Depression, and was the architect of many other spectacular failures that just now are coming to fruition, including Fannie Mae and the subprime lending crisis, Social Security, a precedent for federal government bailouts, and "Public Works Projects,"
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So there's one question answered - Democrats created the draft.
Now, who has supported the draft since then? Here's a brief summary:
1948: Democrat, Harry Truman reinstates peacetime draft, this time including medical personnel.
1951: Democrat, Harry Truman signs the Universal Military Training and Service Act, a new draft proposal, into law when the STSA expires.
1969: Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson, oversees as President the first draft "lottery" since 1942.
(*1973: Republican, Richard Nixon, as he promised during his presidential campaign, signs a bill ending the draft.)
2003: Democratic Senators, Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Ernest Holling (D-SC) introduce a bill requiring two years military service for every male and female aged 18-26.
2008: President-elect and Democrat Barack Obama and his nominal Chief of Staff, Democrat Rahm Emanuel, propose compulsory "civilian defense force" training and service for all eligible citizens.
That's another two questions answered: Democrats have supported conscription throughout modern American history. (A Republican president ended it.) Recently, Democrats, including our President-elect, have tried to reinstate it, or have stated that they plan to.
So, how do we reconcile this with our understanding of modern American politics? Aren't the
Republicans supposed to be the warmongering fascists? Don't the Democrats want peace-through-polite-conversation? Don't liberals have a proven track record of demonizing our military as
stupid,
village-bombing baby-killers?
The answer, as always, is that Democrats don't understand basic economics. A military draft represents an artificial price ceiling on a Soldier's work. In other words, it forces individual citizens to do something that they would not normally do at prevailing prices. In a free market during a shortage of some scarce resource (in this case, the willingness of citizens to work as Soldiers), prices rise, increasing supply. However, the market for Soldiers is controlled solely by Congress, and they must set prices. When faced with a shortage (which is a function of price, not actual scarcity), Democrats chose, again and again, to use force to compel U.S. citizens to conform to the will of the government instead of the simple solution of paying more so that more individuals would freely choose to volunteer.