Restore the Republic

Last night President Obama awakened "a renewed spirit of national service." The American Republic must now respond.

Almost 2500 years ago, Pericles, in his ageless funeral oration, praised men who were worthy of the city and declared those "useless" who took no interest in the well-being of Athens. Many of my generation consider John Kennedy's call to "ask what you can do for your country" to have been the origin of the ideal of public service. Instead, the notion of dedication, participation, and service is as old as the Republic itself.

We consider ourselves a democracy, yet we salute the flag of a republic. No idea is more central to the concept of a republic than what used to be called civic virtue, but what today would be called "giving something back," or public service. Founders of republics throughout the ages, including our own, firmly believed that without the involvement of citizens in the common good of their communities and their country the republic would not long survive. The modern republican theorist, Quentin Skinner, has put it this way: "performance of our public duties is indispensable to the maintenance of our own liberty."

The ideal of service is particularly strong among young people, those who have yet to undertake the private duties of family, financial obligation, and wage earning. Thus, those who have sought to keep the ancient republican ideal alive in our own time have created and supported the Peace Corps, Vista, and more recently Americorps. And there are those like Alan Khazei and Michael Brown who have created organizations such as City Year to fill in the gaps when our government seems unconcerned with citizen engagement in the national interest.

Now, in a new time of national peril, rather than considering it a luxury, we need to see national service as a necessity for the rallying of the national community behind our common good and our common goals. No single step would revitalize our fearful national spirit more than a new era of civic republicanism. The single best vehicle to achieve this goal is the proposed Serve America Act sponsored by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch. This is a genuinely bipartisan response to President Obama's challenge to Americans of all ages to serve the national community.

Building on existing Americorps programs and the National Community Service Act, Serve America would substantially expand opportunities for all age groups, from young people to retired professionals, to provide a year or more of service in community education, health, environment, energy efficiency, and a host of other projects. Young people participating in Serve America would also qualify for financial support to pursue higher education.

Among those hardest hit by a shrinking job market are those just entering the work force. Rather than stay in their parents' home, roam the mean streets, or suffer endless employment rejection, unemployed young people especially can join Serve America to improve their communities and build their own ladders out of economic recession. Creative opportunities such as this are exactly what Barack Obama's standard of "responsibility" is all about.

At a time when so many public needs, from schools to parks, from soup kitchens to retirement homes, are unmet, Serve America is not a "make work" project. It is targeted toward real needs not currently being met by private enterprise or any level of government. The costs of Serve America are minuscule in an age of massive bank bailouts, industrial rescues, and mortgage underwriting.

Resistance to expanded public service programs can be expected from the ideologically sclerotic, those who occupy the negative ground between government as the problem and government as our enemy. These are clearly people unfamiliar with Pericles of even for that matter Thomas Jefferson.

To be a true republican is to recognize the role of civic virtue, participation in the public affairs of the community, and to be among the men and women of whom future generations of Americans will say, they were worthy of their city and their nation.

Comments

[ObjectiveRealist]

Quoting FishOfTheP­roletariat­:
Support Public Campaign Financing; Decentralization of Media Ownership; Public Radio and Television with NO Corporate "sponsors;" Single Payer Health Insurance; Nationalization of the Federal Reserve with FULL audit NOW; Stop using our Military and Intelligence apparatus as a proprietary vehicle of transnational corporations with no regard for the ACTUAL interests of the American People; REPEAL Bushco's draconian Patriot Act and abolish the"Department of Homeland Security," the largest bureaucracy ever established; Centralize States' School Funding by Federal Mandate to be reapportioned to insure Equal Educational Opportuinity; require states to admit ALL young people to state colleges that have good enough grades, with a SLIDING SCALE fee system that permits even the poorest child to go to college.

I have a few more things on my list but.....St­art there Gary Hart.... then get back to me about whether or not I will permit YOU to lecture MY children about CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY.
/quote

The problem with government is not the citizens. In my opinion, it's mainly the extension to BUSINESSES ("corporations") of the right to lobby the government which has empowered the most irresponsible members of society with disproportionate influence. In any case, it is certainly not the citizens who have fallen short, except perhaps in demanding rights in parity with our French and German counterparts, on labor, education and health care.

[LONZ]

I read Gary Hart's "Restore The Republic" with both concern and amusement considering we have a guy here that has spent most of his career "shilling" for the very spectic financial oligarchy that has saddled this nation with the apathy which erodes our desire to participate. Volunteerism means just that: if it is required it becomes a form of servitude. A, well, whatever he is. . .Gary Hart no doubt would have no problem with the feudalism that fathers involuntary servitude since he did as much as anyone in promoting the corporate form of feudalism and debt-drive­n-servitud­e we now are faced with. It is true people have taken a bother-me-not attitude to serving but with the middle class and rural America making up a good percentage of those active in community it is no wonder few participate since the likes of Gary Hart and his ilk on both sides of the isle have shattered these two sectors. I serve a lot of causes and all serve my community and state. By serving my state I serve my republic. I am framiliar with the words of both Pericles and Jefferson and though Pericles was as much of a "plutocrat" as Hart shame on the ex-Senator for quoting Jefferson who knew a republic started with the people, distrusted the bankers that Hart so willingly served and Jefferson knew that volunteerism should never be mandated. If of Hart wants feudalism he should leave and seek that dream.

[dadw5boys]

ALL NON-PROFITS NEED TO PUBLISH AUDITED FINANCIAL REPORTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW MUCH DO THE DIRECTORS GET PAID ??????

WANT FREE LABOR??? --- SHOW YOUR NOT STEALING THE MONEY !!!!!11

[JulieSA]

I would like it if the government officials who plan to raise my taxes would actually pay their own taxes.

[corwin]

I should be finishing a paper.Just shows why the next youngest was Dad's favorite.B­ut,I want to amplify on a couple of posts nearby.Joh­nnie22x (slightly below) talks of the noblesse involved in public service.A telling statistic,is that(In the state of Calif and Mich. a public employee makes about 42% more than the private sector.Som­etimes the gap is bigger,Dr Coeman who is Pres of U-M was an Ok ,not great chemist.Sh­e makes (I think )1.3 Million
And ,Nr Freeze,you don't have things straight.R­ather they're an asymptotic curve.(Loo­k it up)Why,oh why did you say Blackwater employees aren't governed by US law/Either in New Orleans(I know it's questionable if NO has a legal system)or else where?Seri­ously,your reasoning?
And I'm paid by the US GOvt,when I remove a tumor from an elderly person.Doe­s that make me a mercenary?
And I want to amplify on public employees.­I'm sure some are underpaidPres Obama0.But for a person of meddocre talents,it's often a sinecure.

[provgrays]

We could start by knowing American history and the reasons that the Founders took the outlandish risk of defying England in the first place. Most people you ask don't know a thing about the Constitution.

Many don't value their rights because they know nothing about them. Any cultural renewal begins with embracing our original ideals as a nation.

[corwin]

This is babble.A great fictional detective remarked,"Trust in inertia,Ar­chie.It's the greatest force in the universe."­To think people will start roaming ,looking for projects is akin to a Judy Garland ,"Hey,Kids!Let's put on a show,!"
and,diffedently,I raise the question,whta projects?There are only so many bike paths to be constructed.

[WilliePilgrim]

It would be great if one half of the members of Congress were selected by lottery like we do for juries, for one term only, from the qualified citizens who make up this republic. It would do wonders to break the corrupting force of money and bring back to the people the concept of a government by the people, instead of by a class of political creature determined to stay in power.

[provgrays]

I would trust the first 435 people in the phone book in place of the U.S. Congress.

[Badbone]

"The ideal of service is particularly strong among young people, those who have yet to undertake the private duties of family, financial obligation, and wage earning."

Actually the ideal fairly universal. It's the reality that keeps getting in the way. Asking me to put government's affairs ahead those of my family is simply not going to work, no matter how much you wrap it up in the flag.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"No single step would revitalize our fearful national spirit more than ..."

... restoring the rule of law.

[tralfas]

......but not as it applies to contract law

[Jerry Pecks]

You make me wish I had enrolled at CU instead of Metro. Very insightful piece!

[2sunny]

I am standing..­.....appau­lding your astute awareness.­...thank-y­ou Mr. Hart

[mergina]

You are going to have A VERY VERY HARD TIME trying to convince MILLIONS of unemployed Americans to volunteer for ANYTHING that has to do with government, a government that has let the majority of Americans down again, and again, and again. Add to that the MILLIONS who have lost their retirement, the MILLIONS without health care, and you can begin to get the picture. Try selling national service to the wealthy, to those with health care, to those that have something perhaps, to be proud of this nation for. The majority of Americans however, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A VERY TOUGH TIME CONVINCING TO SERVER ANYWHERE when you've already bled them dry.

[johnie2xs]

I've had a number of members of my extended family who have worked government jobs, be they state of federal. In each case their application to there work was very personal, and committed. That being the case it bothers me no end whenever I hear the government denigrated for its perceived ineptitude, and supposed waste. I think this slight is felt very deeply by those who have spent lives and careers in the public sector. I don't suspect that there is in fact not some truth to both those charges, but what I feel what is missed is that the mission of these job is for the benefit of all, with the profit factor removed. The fact of doing a better job applies to all jobs, not just government work, so singling them out is inherently unfair. Some societal services and needs that we have can be best served, in this manner. The biggest reason why this is, I believe, is that it fosters the connectivity from one person to another. The attempt to "privatize" everything removes the personal factor, injects the profit motive, effectively dehumanizing the job itself. I find that saddening, especially considering the technical advances, and every advancing modernity itself, has driven us further apart already. A call, therefore, for public service and involvement is not only called for, is to be welcomed. If we are to make it through the hard times ahead, such ideas could be our salvation. Anything less, could mean our undoing.

[grn1]

It was the private sector that showed up for Katrina, long before government got it's head out of its ass.

[johnie2xs]

You missed the whole point. Your complaint is with the administration which failed miserably and has absolutely NOTHING to do with career government workers, either state or federal, that I'm referring to.

I honestly have not kept up on the participation of the private sector, after Katrina, but they work on the profit motive and I'm sure didn't run in to work on spec.. It was the government that had responsibility to make the initial move. The government failed; the government APPOINTEES failed; not the government workers.

[mrfreeze]

Two things:
1) The slow response to Katrina was not a function of "governmen­t." It was a function of how the neo-fascists (republicans) took a wrecking ball to government over the last 30 years, ruined it and then criticized it for not working. It was the purpose of the last administration to render government ineffective. In this they succeeded.
2) Private contractors from Blackwater were used in Katrina (hear that "private" mercenary contractors). So let me get this straight: hired mercenaries under no national or international jurisdiction were on our shores, being paid with tax dollars to profit from a disaster. I'm so glad "the private sector" was there.

[ahumbleopinion]

Privatizing just give a group of executive a chance to pay themselves huge compensation packages at taxpayer expense.

[kenstremsky]

Voluntary national service is a great idea.

Mandatory national service is a BAD IDEA.

An Amendment to the United States Constitution should be passed that bans the military draft as a possibility even when our country has been invaded. No government should have the power to force people to die for it.

The federal government has caused significant harm to state governments since the passage of Amendment Seventeen.

If you care about our Republic, you should support increasing the power of State Legislatures.

I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that allows State Legislatures to repeal federal laws, federal regulations, trade agreements, and Treaties.

I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that allows State Legislatures to recall (fire) their Representatives to the United States House of Representatives, their United States Senators, the President of the United States of America, and the Vice President of the United States of America.

I would like an Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted that allows each State to have at least 3 United States Senators and allows each State Legislature to choose at least 1 United States Senator.

Sincerely,

Ken Stremsky

[FloridaMich]

why exactly are we then called the "united states" ? So each can have it's own agenda?

[2sunny]

Well said. To those who choose to discredit our President, I say, "Out of our way. We will walk through you if you cannot accept this change of office. We will walk over you, and even carry you at times. And we shall be heard through this fine Man, Our President. For he seeks a far more valiant ear than yours. The President's cabinet and the people of this United America will not turn back the agenda of government for the people, by the people." I am so hopeful.
This I say, I remain, 2 sunny

[kenstremsky]

Before Amendment Seventeen was passed United States Senators were chosen by State Legislatures. Our founders wanted Senators chosen by State Legislatures because they were worried about the federal government having too much power. They wanted State Legislatures to have a say on War, trade agreements, Treaties, national debt, and many other topics. Our country might have not gone into Iraq if Senators had been chosen by State Legislatures.

If you read Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and Article 2, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, you will realize they were worried about the President of the United States of America having too much power.

Amendment Ten

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

If State Legislatures had the power to remove Presidents, they might have removed Nixon and Bush. If State Legislatures had the power to remove their Representatives and Senators, Representatives and Senators might have regulated financial companies better.

The Federalist Papers is a book I highly recommend.

Our system of government is based on a system of checks and balances which got very screwed up by the passage of Amendment Seventeen.

Sincerely,

Ken Stremsky

[mick7191]

Wrong

[grn1]

Not on the firing part!!!!

[mrfreeze]

We would have avoided the fiasco in Iraq had there been a draft. The wealthy, the neo-cons, the jingoists and the chicken hawks would have had "skin in the game." You can bet they all would have been far more reluctant to send their precious children there if a draft were in place. By the way, the Constitution "provides for the common defense." For those who really believe this, a draft would be a good insurance policy!!!!

[kenstremsky]

I think the draft is a form of slavery.

People should vote for better elected officials. People should stop voting for idiots I doubt have ever read The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Forcing people to fight may end in disaster.

Sincerely,

Ken Stremsky

[FutureRefugee]

I don't think a draft would necessarily have prevented the Iraq war. The draft didn't prevent Vietnam. After 9/11, Bush, Rove and the GOP were at the height of their power to incite fear and false patriotism. If there was a draft, they probably could have used it to make the war bigger, not smaller.

[Tkevan]

McCains son Jimmy, is currently serving. He has done a tour in Iraq.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"We would have avoided the fiasco in Iraq had there been a draft."

No draft in our history has ever prevented a war.

No draft in our history has ever been applied universally so that all people, including chicken-hawks, would have, as you say, have "skin in the game."

[provgrays]

The Draft Riots of the Civil War era is an example of the resentment that rises up when the well heeled avoid having to risk their lives for their country.

It's no accident that the poor fight and die, the aristocratic rulers create the wars and the no-bid government vendors profit from it all.

Same as it ever was.

[booksnmore4you]

Mr Hart.

Of course, you are right.

However, National Service is just Maoist collectivism, and step to toward The End of America and toward Marxist comrades for the American Right. They've been brainwashed into this by their demagogues just as sure as a member of a cult.

P.S. I am a national service alum and it defined my career.