Since I live in Texas, I can assure you that the Dems are cherry picking and lying about voter suppression from a whole list of items.
But you need to see the value in it beforehand. If you go into military service already despising it. and America, the military can only do so much to āconvinceā you to like it. They canāt physically beat you into compliance or withhold food or something. When the options are accept the situation and do your best or, be a shamming cry baby (maybe join the floppy shoe brigade) and get kicked out, it doesnāt work unless the objective is to weed those people out, which then defeats the whole purpose of compulsory service. When I was in Basic, all those recruits who wanted out eventually were discharged. And all of those who wanted out did not change their minds at any point.
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For better or worse, depending on oneās perspective, Texas will eventually become a Dem supporting state regardless of any laws. What the dems are doing there isnāt so much about the actual laws being proposed but appearing to support the rights of certain demographics in order to get their votes.
There is always āpublic serviceā.
Quite a number of organizations require their members to engage in such.
This younger generation thinks carrying a sign or making a tik tok video counts as public service. There is absolutely nothing stopping a āwokeā young adult from volunteering to help out inner city youth. They can tutor or join Big Brothers/Big Sisters. They can help the existing community aid groups, like the churches. Or they can read White Fragility and in between posting on social media from their iPhones, lecture their parents on how they are racists for doing all that they could to make sure they (their children) could have a better life. A better life they wonāt be giving up any time soon. If you ask them to do some community work they will ask if there is an app for that.
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Not as long as the Democrats think Tejanoās are Latinx. Hispanics are becoming a larger and larger percentage of the Texas population, and more and more of them are turning towards the Republicans.
Sure I get they ācanā join in these, like you and I and likely many others on here have done. But I took the conversation as more or less requiring a mandatory service. I also am in agreement with 2JS on this.
My take is that even if āforcedā, there would be an eye opening for many that would benefit the society for far longer than the actual service period. There will always be some that it wonāt effect positively - just like jail doesnāt straighten out everyone.
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Until they become Americanized.
I would agree, but how many parents will cry about it when their kids complain to them. How many will be against their precious babies having to be in the ghetto?
Because they ARE becoming Americanized
IMO, this is a losing battle for the GoP. Sure they might go from 5% to 20% or whatever, but when that voting population goes from 5 million to 20 million (just making up numbers), that is a loss for them overall.
Nationwide, I would agree with you. Texas has itās own dynamic, though. And every day that Biden leaves the border open, more and more Tejanos will turn away from the democrats.
If thereās one thing conscription is good for, itās enabling one to get to know the entire demographic strata of oneās generation in one place. Itās a very horrifying experience as you truly grasp what āaverageā means.
On my draft day, we spent around 45 minutes explaining the concept of a multiple choice question, with around 70% getting it right by the end of the session.
After that, we moved to more complex tasks - a picture of a bicycle with a missing front wheel where we were supposed to determine the geometric shape that fits. Our of 100 something people five failed, including a guy with swastika tattoos who wept out of sheer mental exertion.
If anything, compulsory military service taught me how to talk and behave around āaverageā people which was very useful later in life.
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Sure, Iām not disagreeing. From a population standpoint though, whatās the practical solution? There has to be a practical implementation and an attitude adjustment. I think a number of movements have been launched and picked up steam without a foundation of pre-existing attitudes.
Climate change advocacy comes to mind as one that did not begin with widespread agreementā¦ Not that it does now in itās political form, but the majority of people now believe if it important to actively take care of the environment and carbon footprint regardless of their stance on govt policies or āleft wing nannyingā. You can be conservative and have a strong concern for the climate in other words, you donāt have to be AOC crazy.
Itās playing a long game but I donāt see why the same couldnāt be done with attitudes towards service.
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10,000% right. Kurtzās breakdown from āHeart of Darknessā comes to mindā¦
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I think for one thing, in schools they should teach the values of the Founders, which should be our values, separately from the Foundersā personal lives. I look at people who take the idea that every man is created equal and complain that the Founders did not include women and black people, even though today it has come to include everyone, as idiots. When some athlete in a fringe sport says that the American flag or anthem donāt represent her, or her people (and what narcissism to claim you speak for your people), she shows she is just a miserable person in general. I get the national anthem has other verses in its non anthem form that are not acceptable by our current sensibilities but no one would even know they existed if people didnāt bring it up as they are not included in the anthem. It doesnāt make sense to complain about verses that basically donāt even exist and ignore the part that we use. Some of these people want to bitch about things that donāt exist; things we edited and changed.
Jefferson owned slaves but what does that have to do with how his political beliefs then, have evolved to what they are now? Do you get rid of the Bill of Rights because of the people who were behind it or do you expand it to be more inclusive? I honestly think elementary school should start every day with an explanation of the expression, donāt throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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You and I have much in common then lol. It was still this way when I was going through elementary/high school. We talked about how Jefferson was conflicted with his behavior (and he talks about his conscience) but without condemning everything he stood for.
Because a) the concepts were light-years ahead of anything else in the world at that time, or for that matter in history and b) umā¦ weāre ALL human and prone to fucking up. Seriously. You canāt judge a man by standards 200 years later than he lived.
I like your last suggestion. I think we should explain that expression to everyone every day.
I have been thinking about this over the last few days because I have been dealing with rookies straight out of FLETC. I know , I am getting frustrated when I cannot get through these rookies brains, they could get killed on the job, this is one of the most dangerous times in law enforcement. And they have it much easier than a street cop working a beat. I was discussing tactics on dealing with an active shooter, when this kid raised his hand and " Sir, when can we have a break?, I have been getting a lot of texts this morning and need extra time to read them?" WTF.
Perhaps, if it was required to have 6 weeks of basic training before you could graduate high school. No training, no diploma. ROTC could easily handle most of the training at the school facilities with two weeks assigned to a base to attend basic rifle training.
Now, what about students who quit high school before graduating? Now, I am not suggesting establishing a Hitler Youth Corps , but, you quit high school, you owe the country a year of service. At the end of a year, hopefully , you have did the work and receive a high school diploma. No diploma? You have to stay in the military until you get one.
Yes, I know, pie in the sky stuff, but, our countryās youth in the inner cities are failing. The only structure they have are the gangs and that leads only to death for their victims and their selves
Rant over, sorry:))
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Back in graduate school in the mid-90s when there was all the Super Predator stuff about violent teens, I wrote a paper about militarizing the high schools in the U.S. Dispersing kids across the country to expose them to different cultures and break up the gangs. The teacher (who was a former Texas Supreme Court judge (D)) called me fascist but gave me an A.
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Maybe he meant it as a compliment?
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