The other day I wondered allowed if I'd missed some big John McCain national service speech. He'd been a big advocate of civilian service for years but I hadn't heard anything about it, while Obama has been emphasizing it (more about Obama's plan here).
Paul Glastris, the editor of the Washington Monthly, which published McCain's plea for national service a few years back, provides the answer: McCain has indeed stopped talking about it:
Whatever the reason, the Arizona senator has spent this presidential season eloquently exhorting young people to "serve a cause higher than self" while studiously avoiding mention of any new measures to create more opportunities for such service. He took a weeklong "Service to America" speaking tour this spring, during which he said nothing about national service. His website is bereft of information on the subject. When reporters ask his campaign for anything in writing on the candidate's national service agenda, they are sent copies of his 2001 Washington Monthly article.
Why would he shy away? One theory: while national service has become broadly popular, earning support from people like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, it has remained unpopular with some of the most conservative anti-government parts of the party. If McCain's challenge was juicing up the base, why talk about something would alienate the anti-government hardliners? It's not like anyone other than a few national service junkies would notice that the stopped talking about it. So why take the risk?
One subtext of the Republican convention was that being a soldier is real service; being a community organizer (i.e. civilian service) was comical if not diabolical. If he backed a big community service proposal, perhaps that would have undermined that culture-war argument.
McCain will have a chance to rectify that today (Thursday). He and Obama will both appear at ServiceNation, a conference promoting community and national service. I'm sure he'll talk positively about serving one's nation. The key question is whether he'll be specific, as he once was. I'll report back.
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It's not being a "real" soldier that matters to the right wing and for the record John McCain was officially a sailor (even pilots in the US Navy are officialy sailors).
Just look at how they treated some of those who actually serviced in theatre of operations and all of them are Democrats: Max Cleland (amputee), John Kerry (Purple Heart 3), Al Gore, Jack Murtha (37 years), Bob Kerry (Medal of Honor), Jim Webb, Jimmy Carter, Tammy Duckworth (amputee), Paul Hackett, etc.
I would say that McCain has also dropped mentioning national service because he knows, if he is elected, he'll bring back the draft. He actually supported this in response to a question at a town hall meeting not too long ago.
McCain led the republican side to keep Clinton's Americorps going. In other words, he actually took action and made something happen because it made sense for America. It is clear that McCain both supports service and given the opportunity do something positive to support it. It is also clear that it not a point of differentiation between candidates. Better to focus on lack of real experience and lack of any legislative achievement in Obama's experience short resume.
McCain cannot bring back the draft without an act of Congress and he won't get that act because no one in Congress is quite ready to commit suicide. National Service is an idea whose time is never going to come because every parent and grandparent in the country would never forgive anyone dumb enough to vote for it.
The forum tonight (Sept. 11) with Obama and McCain will be streamed live
here.
The Service Nation blog is a good source of info as well.
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