Our country is broken—it is falling apart at the seams—and it will not mend itself. It will take all of us to mend it. It may take considering some major national changes. Too many of us have simply sat back and watched America fall. It is time to consider any idea that holds out some promise of national renewal, any idea that might universally unite us all and teach us a common cause.
Perhaps even compulsory national service.
Compulsory service would require every 18-year-old to serve for a year or more. It’s not a radical or fresh idea. Seventy-five countries have some form of national service requirement, and we’ve had it at times in American history. It could also encompass more than just military service. Other options include the Peace Corps, community service, cleaning up public lands, and rebuilding aging infrastructure.
As a society, we are increasingly self-centered. Citizenship means responsibility beyond self-interest. The concept of civic responsibility—so eloquently expressed by President John Kennedy—is being eroded. A requirement for national service could help revive a shared sense of citizenship among ordinary Americans.
America is also becoming increasingly polarized and isolated along economic and racial lines. We no longer interact with people outside our own cohort. A luxurious kid who grew up with his parents in the financial world of New York probably has no idea what it’s like in an aging steel town in Ohio. A kid from the Steel City can’t even imagine New York. These are two different worlds. Add to this the racial divide and the whole thing becomes exaggerated. For a multi-ethnic and multi-racial country with as many fresh immigrants as we have, this type of polarization is deadly to culture and national unity. None of these dynamics are fresh, but they are getting worse.
Social and cultural segregation in our country directly contributes to the vulgarity of our national culture and politics. In America, we don’t just disagree; we denigrate those who do not share our views. Democrats think Republicans are the Ku Klux Klan without hoods. Republicans think Democrats are Joseph Stalin before the purges. Rural people believe that city dwellers are snobbish, materialistic and detached from reality. Cosmopolitan city dwellers think that rural people are stupid, fat and idle.
When you have little interaction with those who do not share your background or beliefs, it is effortless to view them as caricatures. It is easier to demonize or marginalize them. This leads to the fractures we have in America today and the normalization of short-term political violence; we’ve all seen it. Left to develop, these dynamics lead to the collapse of societies.
We need to break down barriers of race, class, and geography to help create a stronger sense of national community. It’s not effortless, but mandatory service can help build civic pride and begin to erode America’s extreme polarization. A required year of service will unite Americans of all backgrounds, which will help adolescent people understand each other. Contact reduces intolerance and promotes cohesion. And we’re definitely miniature on national cohesion. We need it now more than at any time since at least the 1960s, maybe the 1860s.
The main argument against compulsory military service comes from the military. America had a draft until 1973. Since then, we have had an all-volunteer force. Our professional volunteer army has served us well. Bringing in recruits who don’t want to serve can cause morale and discipline problems. We saw that in Vietnam. But we fought World War II with a draft system based on registration and a lottery system. That seemed to work pretty well.
Compulsory military service has another advantage. Twenty years of fighting in the Middle East have contributed significantly to the erosion of support and trust in our national leaders. One reason may be that working-class American families have borne the brunt of the pain. Working-class children were encouraged to join the military through ever-increasing bonuses and retention programs. This has left much of America feeling that our leaders are out of touch and out of touch with the pain that can come with prolonged military engagements. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule – including even the president’s son, who served in the National Guard – but it is generally true that wealthier citizens rarely serve in the military. Mandatory service would put an end to this lively.
The concept of a national service requirement is surprisingly popular across the country, considering no one has made a observable case for it. In the 2020 election, Pete Buttigieg and John Delaney advocated for some form of national service in the Democratic primary, but it was not a major talking point. However, according to a 2017 Gallup poll, half of Americans support a requirement for one year of mandatory military service. Interestingly, support is relatively bipartisan; 44% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans support it.
National service is complicated. It has to be presented properly, or it can be a political loser, and there are flaws that we should fully explore. But if you agree that Americans are too self-absorbed and not as civic-minded anymore, and especially if you think we lack national cohesion, a national service requirement might be the solution.
