Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Obama Administration President-Elect Obama's First Pick: Rahm Emanuel

Ok.. But sorry! If he calls it "Basic Training, civil defense.. blah, blah, blah"

A rose by any other name is still the same.. It smells to me!



The problem is this is AMERICA...

...and the problem with big plans for AMERICAN universal voluntary public service is if everybody has to do it, then it's not voluntary, is it?

Of course, this is only my opinion.. Would be interested in any others and do appreciate the call out Mellow.

No problem, I just wanted to clarify.

I just wrote a long post which I now realize would be off-topic, so I'll start a thread having to do with national service.

What's wrong with compulsory community service for young adults? I wish it were around when I was 18, 19. The Mormons do it - they call theirs called "missions."

(I'm not pointing to Mormonism as the end all given their $30m out-of-state money from Salt Lake City contributions to Prop 8. I'm just sayin' they do it.)

But why not? Seems like it could give aimless kids some direction or at least try things about before they have to decide what they're going to do with their lives.

Because the involuntary enslavement of an individual is a violation of the souvereignty of her personhood and fascistic in nature.:-)
Yours,
Issodhos

.. he used the f word ..

So CR, what about the rest of society? The kids who have aim? (vs. aimless: as in your thought)...

This may have been good with you (wished even) BUT... I did grow up Mormon... Most of my family is STILL doing the "service"...

... would have been suicide for me ...

Ugh..

Okay, back to the topic, perhaps?

I am a little troubled when people say that Emanuel is an insider and represents the same old way of doing business.

First, I want to point out that the candidate who ran on a "Washington outsider" label...a) was the Governor of Alaska, not the Senator from Illinois, and b) lost.

Once again, and I'm sorry again, I'll bring up LBJ. He was hugely successful in getting his domestic ideas accepted, and one of the main reasons was that he knew how Congress worked, and he worked it.

The House and Senate are complicated organizations, and any outsider who plans to come in and "run them" is in for a very unpleasant surprise.

In the whole campaign, I never forgot that Obama came up through Illinois/Chicago politics - and I counted that as a bonus. He understands the value of good, or perhaps just old-fashioned, politics. Congress is a machine, although not a well-oiled one, and he knows how the machine runs.

It was because he understood the legislative branch so well that LBJ accomplished what he did - the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Economic Opportunity Act, Upward Bound, VISTA, JobCorp - Headstart, Medicare, Medicaid, National Endowment for the Arts, public broadcasting, truth in lending -- and I'm not even halfway through.

You can't accomplish that much (and yes, Vietnam was gathering steam all the while) without the ability to work the machine and work it well.

That's why I'm hoping Emanuel will be as effective as he's said to be. It's also why I'm not too worried about "same old." If Obama can use the "same old" methods to get the country going down a new and better road - because after all, many of those "same old" methods are laid out in the Constitution and/or in Senate and House tradition - I'm happy.

Seems like a good choice to me. You have to love a good well-trained pitbull.

And as to compulsive military/civil service for all young people in exchange for help with college, I'm all for it. And the sooner they implement it, IMNSHO, the better.

Would you like some brie with that whine?

Having some of the same misgivings as Em does, I appreciate your post Mellow.
I'm in a wait and see mode.

I do appreciate this thread for that reason....to learn different perspectives.