The Responsive Community

National service has always been the bridesmaid but never the bride in American politics. From the time the idea of some kind of service more comprehensive than military duty in the militia or in the conscript army became popular in the early 1900s, it's had a lot of support -- mostly on the center-left, some on the right. But national service has never really gotten very far. Now, after a century of failed attempts, we have proposals for some comprehensive service programs at the federal level.