Obama's Civilian Army

Submitted by kvaughn on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 03:40
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During the campaign, Obama promised to bring us a "civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded" as our nation's military and now he is trying to deliver (and then some) in perhaps the most scary piece of legislation to date.  Ironically, this bill was submitted by Charlie Rangel just days before he is being brought up on ethics violations, thereby showing how little we can trust our politicians in the basic stuff, let alone the massive control that this bill would give to a single politician (the President).

The good news is that the bill is actually quite short and understandable; we can only hope that this will be its Achilles heel.  As I will discuss below, it is blatantly obvious how the power outlined in this bill given to the wrong President (and a complacent Supreme Court) could result in evil as bad or worse than the world has ever seen. Some in the country might be concerned that Obama might be such a President; others might believe George Bush was such a President - my point is, it doesn't matter if neither of them are/were that bad; history has demonstrated that a republic is capable of electing a person like Adolf Hitler - it would be amazingly stupid to give one person the amount of power contained in this bill because it would eventually be abused - and the existence of the powers would attract people like Adolf Hitler.

What is in the Bill

In short, the bill requires every person residing in the US "who is between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of national service." National service includes the military, but those "who do not volunteer to perform military service or are not inducted for military service shall perform their national service obligation in a civilian capacity" ... "that, as determined by the President, promotes the national defense, including national or community service and service related to homeland security." 

Now one might think that the Congress would give the President more guidance than this. In a way they do in Section 105. This clause states that the President shall prescribe regulations as necessary, including:

  • The types of civilian service that may be performed in order to satisfy these requirements
  • Standards for satisfactory performance and penalties for failure to perform
  • Standards for compensation
  • Any other matters the President deems necessary

What Does it Mean

In the US, there are roughly 4 million people reaching military age every year. Thus, if each of these people serve exactly two years, there would be 8 million in the service program at any time. Presumably, the size of the military (just shy of 3 million, including active and reserve) would not change; but most of these are serving more than 2 years. Even if we assume that half of the 3 million are in their first two years of duty (a wildly optimistic assumption), there would only be 1.5 million of the 8 million in the military; the other 6.5 million, would by definition, be serving in the civilian service program - and that is only those that are performing their mandatory service. Undoubtedly, there would be managers and others who stay on longer-term. Thus, one has to assume that the entire civilian service program would include at least 7.5 million active employees.

How big is 7.5 million employees? Well, it would be the biggest organization in the world, eclipsing the size of all other organizations. By comparison, the other largest organizations are:

So, we are talking about an organization that is 3 times larger in active participants than any organization in existence, and I suspect ever in existence in the history of the world. And this program will apparently just be started overnight when the bill is passed!

What are these people doing? They are serving in a civilian capacity "as directed by the President." There does not appear to be any real constraint on what the President could have these people do (as long as it didn't break the law - as the Supreme Court would be willing to interpret it), since it would include "national or community service." Some thoughts on what a President could require:

  • Assistance to the poor (which would probably include most of the civilian service corps)
  • Personal assistant to the President (coffee, laundry, etc.)
  • Building houses, perhaps for the President himself
  • Providing free assistance to failing companies - such as those newspaper outlets preferred by the President (perhaps with tight controls on content)
  • Informing the public to administration policies dictates
  • Monitoring websites for dangerous information (e.g., that might harm the President's image)
  • Providing medical service to make up for the lack of doctors that left the industry
  • Picking cotton to make uniforms
  • Starting other companies to provide essential services - especially those where the private sector has been deemed to be making too much money
  • Anything that Hitler could dream of (with the only limit being those that the Supreme Court would be willing to impose)
  • Providing staff "assistance" to all members of Congress and the Supreme Court; these select people might then be required to report all observed activities back to the President, thereby allowing the President to "better understand the plans of these other branches of government."
  • Personal assistance to all members of Congress and the Supreme Court to prepare their food, maintain their vehicles, etc (you know, including brake lines)

And of course, if you failed to perform your duties in a satisfactory manner, the President could punish you in whatever manner he deemed fit, limited only by the dictates of the Supreme Court (who might be monitored themselves). 

Once again, it does not matter if Obama is capable of these acts or not. History has proven that evil people can be elected to high office and this type of legislation would attract those type of people. The main reason that this type of abuse has not happened in the US in 234 years is because we have largely refused to give our President sufficient power to enact the policies necessary for that kind of evil. The few times that we did give the President an excess of power, we lucked out (e.g., Wilson and FDR); but luck will not last forever. This bill would invite catastrophe on a scale that eclipses all other bills submitted during this session of Congress and perhaps in the history of our Republic.