Barrack Obama has created change.gov, ‘The Official Web Site of the U.S. Presidential Transition.’ The site lays out his agenda for what he is going to change in the country. The site has been reworked since it originally launched; all that remains is:
“Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.”
PoliticalLore.com has documented that the original wording on Change.gov says: “Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.”
In a column entitled “Why would a black President want slavery?” libertarian author Gerry Reed examines how President-elect Obama and his chief advisor Rahm Emmanuel both support involuntary servitude in the form of mandatory community service for college students, parents, for grandparents, engineers, and scientists.
Similarly, Chris Brown documents how Obama’s proposed program, the Classroom Corps, uses the terms enlist and draft. Finally, libertarian J.D. Tuccille was one of the first to point out that Rahm Emanuel co-authored a book that calls for compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25.
Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person’s will to benefit another, under some form of coercion. The Thirteenth Amendment makes it illegal, except as punishment for a crime.
Will Obama get away with his plan to draft Americans into the ranks of community service? FDR got away with a military draft. From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, Americans were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means.
However, even since the end of the draft in 1973, the Selective Service System still exists, should our politicians decide a draft is necessary to fight their unconstitutional wars. The RLC’s Statement of Principles has explicitly opposed a draft and conscription.
On December 8th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I agree with you 100% but we need to also criticize Republicans who support national service such as Huckabee’s recent flirtation in his new book.