Setting Up A Community Clean-Up Day Is Slavery

I normally wouldn't bother with Jonah Goldberg, whose best-selling book Liberal Fascism: There Are Funyuns Stuck To My Typewriter! is enough evidence to give him a lifetime of shame and self-loathing. But today he prints a very strange op-ed in the LA Times that suggests calling for a goal of voluntary service is akin to keeping public school students of all ages down on the plantation.

"There's a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.
For those who don't remember, the 13th Amendment says: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime ... shall exist within the United States."

I guess in Obama's mind it must be a crime to be born or to go to college.

In his speech on national service Wednesday at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would "set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year."

He would see that these goals are met by, among other things, attaching strings to federal education dollars. If you don't make the kids report for duty, he's essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose. In short, he'll make service compulsory by merely compelling schools to make it compulsory."

First of all, Goldberg's meal ticket and the founder of National Review Bill Buckley called for the exact same kind of program. Second, as hilzoy notes, public school itself is compulsory. That's why they have truant officers. I don't expect Goldberg to remember as far back as that to a time when he was graded poorly for his reading comprehension skills, but they actually make you take tests in schools. And gym!

Attaching community service to education dollars is no different than, say, attaching mandatory school prayer to education dollars. Which Goldberg would doubtless find some hoop to jump through and justify as entirely non-fascist. I could add that, what's more, community service actually has an effect, but I wouldn't want to be sacreligious.