With seven months until Election Day, I remain in the tiny pool of “undecided” voters. I detest the major party nominees in equal measure. Each time I find myself inching toward former President Donald Trump, for example, he reminds me of his uniquely malformed character. There is only one man on Earth who would attempt to market a $60 “God Bless the USA Bible” during Holy Week. And even the independent candidates are difficult to stomach — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to name a techno-utopian liberal from Silicon Valley as his running mate raised a field’s worth of red flags.
And, at the risk of being drawn and quartered, I find myself sincerely conflicted by some of the major issues of the day. I believe, for instance, that Social Security and Medicare should be left alone, but also that our national debt demands action. I believe that defending Ukraine from Russia is an important foreign policy priority, but nowhere near as important as defending Taiwan from China, which raises the matter of resource allocation. I believe in securing the border, but that we take as many legitimate asylum-seekers as possible. These tensions are difficult to resolve, especially in a rapidly shifting political landscape dominated by demonstrably unethical leaders.
But there is one policy proposal that strikes me as so utterly unassailable and inspiring that, should a candidate take up its cause, I’d be willing to disregard all other imperfections and indiscretions. In fact, I’d be willing to pledge my vote today to the candidate who proposes the establishment of a mandatory national service program for young people.
To be sure, America is not short on major crises to solve. From open borders to drug addiction to mass shootings, the United States finds itself in a uniquely perilous moment in its relatively brief history. And while there are compelling solutions to each of these individual problems offered by the major parties, none reach the root of our long-festering national decay.
Aided by social media, the vast majority of the public now lives within one of two information bubbles, red or blue. Communication between political factions has broken down to the extent that working together to solve problems is inconceivable. The acrimony has gotten so bad that leaders in government and media now frequently regard the prospect of a coming civil war with frightening nonchalance. The ghouls in Hollywood have even released a Civil War movie that depicts a future outbreak of violence between the states.
Until this primary cause of our national dysfunction is addressed, America will be helpless to fend off China, secure its borders, or address any other potentially existential threat. America must begin to actively and aggressively combat its crisis of tribalism if it has any hope of surviving the 21st century, let alone resolidifying its position as a global hegemon.
That’s where a mandatory national service program comes in. The program could take any number of forms, from maintaining public parks, organizing youth programs, serving the elderly and homebound, and even military combat training (it certainly wouldn’t hurt for our fragile youth to envision themselves on a battlefield). However conceived, the program should offer as little choice to participants as possible — the lesson that we can’t control everything is one that most children around the globe learn in infancy — and little wiggle room for upper-class children to evade participation. Individual assignments must be chosen at random; we must force ourselves to blend and mix and work together, face-to-face, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
To work, such a program must be blind to class, race, creed, and every other personal identity marker. Only then will the ultimate goal be realized: reinforcement of America’s traditional motto: E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one.
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Of course, the costs of such a program would be significant. However, the cost of widening internal dysfunction is surely greater. Raising up a generation of young people capable of cooperation and collaboration in pursuit of a higher goal is a non-negotiable national priority — and it might even produce acceptable presidential candidates in the future.
The terrible lie that our rights and privileges require nothing from us has wreaked havoc on successive generations. It’s time to put the farce to an end. I call on all presidential nominees to boldly champion a mandatory national service program for youths. Whoever does will earn my vote.
Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, and the National Catholic Register.
