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I understand your point. Your point was that you wanted to bully congressmen into taking your anti-war stance by trying to get their kids killed. Something that is (in addition to being slightly despicable to do) not accomplished by any means with your plan.
The source was median household income within census tracts. Also, your 'data' only shows changing trends. Not absolute figures. Your data says that the percentage of middle class households is increasing. A change in velocity is not a net change in overall position.
You still missed the massive fallacy of the OP's point. The OP is obviously anti-military and is trying to use a perceived intimidation tactic to push his/her views on other people. That is being a thug, not a concerned citizen.
The Heritage Foundation mixed together several databases including Census Bureau, DOD and came up with their own chart based on neighborhood income. I will go with the DOD household income, the HF would have us believe that the highest quincentile has the highest participation rate, that is a lie.
The OP isn't anti-military just anti-war and putting a draft in place with shared sacrifice would make congressmen think twice before they invaded a country. Instead we have things like the war powers act that allow congress to expend American lives without taking responsibility.
The problem with term limits is that institutional memory, experience and skill evaporates. That absolutely leaves governance in the hands of staffers and lobbyists. Of course, that's not a whole lot different from their influence now. However, term limits do heighten the "need" and urgency for constant campaigning as members strive to move from one house to the other or to politically appointed positions. The real answer is campaign financing reform.
I'd argue special interest lobbyists ALREADY control Washington. The problem is you get politicians who have been inside for way too long that they lose base with reality and are eating out of the hands of lobbyists. Nancy Pelosi anyone? She's been in Washington as a Representative for almost 30 years. John McCain has been in for years starting as a representative and then moving onto being a senator. As for the institutional memory, it's basically what special interests pay and blocking laws that protect their interests not what constituents in the state or district want. That is partially why Eric Canter got voted out (that and his bad campaign.)
If we could devise a way for the corporate and banking lobbyists, politicians and their offspring to be the first to be on the front lines, since it is themselves calling for us to go to war, and for everyone else to sit back and watch the fun on tv, it would be the way to go.
Those are the people who will be writing the draft bill and voting it into law. How are you going to get them to write a law that puts themselves and their children in the front lines?
A draft is a very easy solution, we never would have gone into Iraq if a draft was a requirement. How many honorable wars have we been in since WW2, exactly where was our intervention worthwhile.
Yeah, the draft sure kept us out of Korea and Viet-Nam, didn't it?
Title 10 USC Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, CITIZENS of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
All male citizens, 17-45, are bound to militia duty - the source for "Selective Service" (the "Draft").
If we’re going to continue with our present course of perpetual war then shouldn't we reinstate the draft so all patriotic Americans get a chance to serve?
Please do...then we will see who is for...and against us....
Then why was ENDING the Draft such a big demand of anti-war protesters back in the Screaming Sixties?
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