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.”

In Obama’s mind it must be a crime to be born or to attend college.

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In his speech on national service last week 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 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.

When the Right seeks to use government to impose its values, the Left screams about brainwashing and propaganda. When the Left tries it, the right thunders about social engineering. But when Left and Right agree — as seems to be the case on national service — who’s left to complain? As ever, the slipperiest slopes are greased with the snake oil of “bipartisanship.”

After all, Obama’s hardly alone. Sen. John McCain is a passionate supporter of Washington-led (and paid-for) “volunteerism,” as is President Bush. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) and John Edwards both campaigned for the presidency on compulsory national service.

Perhaps thanks to the JFK cult, which sees the refrain “Ask not what your country can do for you . . . ” as an all-purpose writ for social meddling, even the idealistic hipster crowd is on board. Devotees of Rolling Stone and MTV, who normally preen over their alleged libertarianism when the issue is sex, drugs, and rock ’n‘ roll, see nothing wrong with involuntary servitude — as long as we call it “voluntary.”

Volunteerism is good. But why does every good thing need to be orchestrated by government? Most people think churchgoing is a good thing. Does that mean government should fund churches? That’s what they do in Europe and — surprise! — most pews sit empty.


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