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Is forced labor on behalf of the federal government slavery? Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg obviously doesn't think so. Fretting to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about what he sees as the country's lack of "social cohesion," he called for one year of national service as a solution. No doubt he would take offense at any comparison of his scheme to chattel slavery—a comparison such as that offered by former slave Frederick Douglass."What is freedom? It is the right to choose one's own employment. Certainly it means that, if it means anything," Douglass thundered in response to Union General Nathaniel P. Banks's policy as military commander of Louisiana of extracting one year of forced agricultural labor from freedmen on behalf of the federal government. "[A]nd when any individual or combination of individuals, undertakes to decide for any man when he shall work, where he shall work, at what he shall work, and for what he shall work, he or they practically reduce him to slavery."Frederick Douglass, who had personal experience of the horrors of slavery, knew how the institution differs from temporary forced national service—and yet he directly compared them and objected to both.Strictly speaking, the 37-year-old Buttigieg didn't explicitly call for conscription to build "social cohesion." He allowed himself a little deniability by telling Maddow, "One thing we could do that would change that would be to make it, if not legally obligatory, but certainly a social norm that anybody after they're 18 spends a year in national service."Does that mean Buttigieg wants a draft or not? It sounds like he wants 18 year-olds to just load themselves on the buses without the muss and fuss of an enforcement mechanism—but he'll consider some arm-twisting if focus groups voice enthusiasm for the idea.That enthusiasm may not be forthcoming . . .
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Topic: America Doesn't Need Pete Buttigieg's Forced Labor Scheme (Read 193 times)
